Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx toured CSX's sophisticated Northwest Ohio Intermodal Terminal in Wood County on Wednesday, the latest stop by Biden to promote the need for infrastructure following visits to the ports of Baltimore, Savannah and Charleston in recent weeks.
The CSX facility opened in 2011 at a cost of $175 million. It is unique in that CSX operates the terminal as a hub-and-spoke system rather than a typical yard for sorting cars along a route. It has helped alleviate congestion in Chicago, a major transfer point for transcontinental shipments.
"Being able to efficiently move cargo and goods is essential to this country's economy," Biden said, according to a CSX news release. "CSX and the Northwest Ohio Intermodal Terminal have led the revitalization of this region by providing strong, middle-class jobs, supporting local businesses, and improving our nation's infrastructure to keep America competitive globally."
The CSX facility handles 30 trains per day and moves hundreds of thousands of containers a year, connecting Midwest markets, including smaller ones like Louisville, to East Coast ports. As part of its $850 million National Gateway Initiative, CSX is laying down a second track in some locations and clearing height restrictions from tunnels and bridges to allow trains with containers stacked on top of each other to travel from the ports to the Northwest Ohio facility. The first phase of the National Gateway was recently completed.