Can Prineville’s three-person rail and freight company compete with major trucking companies for the freight business of shipping titan Hanjin? Dale Keller thinks it can.
Can Prineville’s three-person rail and freight company compete with major trucking companies for the freight business of shipping titan Hanjin? Dale Keller thinks it can.
Hanjin pulled out of Portland, shifting operations to Tacoma and Seattle. That will create a transit nightmare on I-5, predicts Keller, a board member of the Prineville Freight Depot. His answer: Turn Prineville into an official inland port, serviced by the city’s railroad, and ship goods to and from the Washington ports via rail instead of truck. “Time of transit [of goods] is what’s at stake here,” he says. “If we can shift goods from truck to rail and distribute through Prineville, importers and exporters in Central Oregon will be the beneficiaries.” First Prineville needs the state legislature to approve its inland port status. “We have to understand the viability and do it right, but we think it can work,” he says.
