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Port of Savannah building $127 million rail hub to target Midwest

In this photo provided by the Georgia Port Authority, the container ship COSCO Glory, with a capacity of 13,100 twenty-foot equivalent container units, passes the dredge Padre Island as it works the Savannah Harbor entrance channel, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, in Tybee Island, Ga. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers marked the completion of outer harbor dredging at the Port of Savannah Wednesday, as it reached the midpoint of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project. (Stephen Morton/Georgia Port Authority via AP)
In this photo provided by the Georgia Port Authority, the container ship COSCO Glory, with a capacity of 13,100 twenty-foot equivalent container units, passes the dredge Padre Island as it works the Savannah Harbor entrance channel, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, in Tybee Island, Ga. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers marked the completion of outer harbor dredging at the Port of Savannah Wednesday, as it reached the midpoint of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project. (Stephen Morton/Georgia Port Authority via AP) In this photo provided by the Georgia Port Authority, the container ship COSCO Glory, with a capacity of 13,100 twenty-foot equivalent container units, passes the dredge Padre Island as it works the Savannah Harbor entrance channel, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, in Tybee Island, Ga. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers marked the completion of outer harbor dredging at the Port of Savannah Wednesday, as it reached the midpoint of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project. (Stephen Morton/Georgia Port Authority via AP)

By Staff and Wire Reports 3 min read

SAVANNAH, Ga. – The Port of Savannah began construction Tuesday on a $127 million rail terminal designed for longer trains that can take advantage of bigger cargo ships arriving at the busy seaport and target new customers in the Midwest.

The new hub for transferring cargo between trains and docked ships will be a “game changer” for Savannah, the nation’s fourth-busiest container port, said Jimmy Allgood, board chairman for the Georgia Ports Authority. It will replace two smaller rail terminals at the port.

The new Mason Mega Rail terminal will add thousands of extra feet of track to enable the port to load trains that are 10,000 feet long. It will also double Savannah’s capacity to move 40-foot cargo containers by rail to 1 million containers per year by 2028. About half the added capacity will be available as soon as 2020.

The port authority’s goal is to expand Savannah’s customer base farther inland and compete for cargo that currently moves through ports on the West Coast. Allgood said the new terminal will allow CSX and Norfolk Southern trains to carry cargo directly to cities such as Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati, shaving up to 24 hours off transit times.

“It will open a new corridor for American commerce to and from the Midwest,” Gov. Nathan Deal said in a statement.