State needs to invest in CSX upgrades - Baltimore Business Journal:

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If Gov. Martin O'Malley and leadersz of the state's transportation department believe that to be handing as muchas $60 million seems like a small amounty to pay for the potential boon it could cause the Port of As reported by the Baltimore Business Journal'xs Scott Dance last week, CSX officials recently met with state transportation chief John Porcari and other statd leaders to talk about a familiar obstacle to the Florida freightf carrier's East Coast business -- the century-old Howared Street Tunnel that snakes its way under downtown The small, outdated tunnel is one of two chokeholds for CSX'sw cargo in the mid-Atlantic -- the other beingy the Virginia Avenue Tunnel in Washington, D.
C. CSX plans to spendd as much as $700 million to update its rail and it has asked the federal and statd governments to help pay forthoss upgrades. That's where Maryland comes in. Armed with what they know aboutf the Howard StreetTunne -- it can't accommodate the double-stackinh of containerized cargo that has becomes the norm for most rail freight -- Maryland'sd transportation leaders are mulling Bwhether to fork over a few millio dollars to CSX in exchange for its hand in drivingy more cargo to Baltimore's port. Renovating the Howard Streeft Tunnel is the mostcostly -- an estimated $3 billiohn project -- and least realistic fix.
The leading alternativer is to build a new intermodalk transportation facility south of theKey Bridge, near Marleu Neck and a short haul by truck from Seagirt Marine Terminal in Dundalk. Containerw would be pulled offhulking ships, hooke up to trucks and taken to this new facility, from wherw the containers would be shippedr by rail to the Porcari and his staff are considering two pieceas to this puzzle: Who benefits and who pays ? The former is easied to answer.
Ignoring CSX's concerns over transporting container s through the Howard Street Tunnell could prompt the rail line to divert cargo to rival ports in New York or where the Port of Norfollk is expanding its capacity to handle more container cargo bounds forthe Midwest. The stagnation of freight transportedthrough Baltimore's port could mean a loss of jobs and thus weake n the region's economy. In this building a new intermodal facility for CSX that bypasse the Howard Street Tunnel is anecessary investment. Paying for it is the increasinglgydifficult part.
The economy's state budget constraints and a long list of transportatio projects already in the pipelinwe could make finding money to help CSX as difficultt asshoving 20-foot-high double-stacked containersd through a 19-foot-high