State officials allocated $350,000 to improve container transportation after the closure of the Port’s Terminal 6; some of the funds were used to study the problem and hire a consultant.
The study points in several directions: building an intermodal truck-to-rail container transit station in the mid-Willamette Valley, settling labor disputes at Terminal 6, training more truck drivers, improving communications among producers and shippers and reusing containers so no empty containers are shipped.
Shelly Boshart Davis, whose family runs BOSSCO Trading, said she has reservations about the state’s solution, according to the Portland Tribune.
“I don’t mean to be negative,” she said. But the initiative’s actions don’t solve the port’s stalled labor-management dispute and the loss of container ships, she said.
Port of Portland Spokesman Kenny Macdonald told the Portland Tribune that he “agreed a labor settlement is key, but said better intermodal truck-to-train service can help.”
(READ MORE: Portland Tribune)
