By Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia legislators on Tuesday objected to state plans to auction off the $32 million Heartland Intermodal Gateway, in Prichard, for as little as $1 million, after the complex shut down operations this fall.
“It was probably a good idea. It just did not work at all,” Transportation Secretary Byrd White said of the complex, which opened in December 2015 with the goal of loading and unloading 15,000 rail-to-truck containers a year.
“Some months, we had less than 20 containers come through,” White told interim oversight committees on Transportation and Infrastructure. “We didn’t have 1,500 containers a year. From an economical standpoint, it just did not work.”
Currently, the complex has no activity, since Norfolk Southern Railway stopped servicing the facility on Oct. 1, he said.
Sen. Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, argued Tuesday that the complex had, and still has, great potential, and blamed the state for frittering away an economic opportunity. “For the last five or six years, this has been so mishandled by the DOT and the Port Authority,” Plymale told White, adding, “I’ve seen a lot of bad stuff, but I’ve never seen anything so mishandled. I’m sorry you were handed this, but I still don’t think you’re handling it right.” …
