Port of Oswego to connect Upstate cities with new train and trucking hubs

OSWEGO, N.Y. — The Port of Oswego Authority will receive $40 million from New York state to begin constructing inter-modal transportation hubs in Syracuse and Binghamton, according to a news release Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office issued Tuesday. The money is part of the state’s 2015-2016 budget agreement.

The hubs are meant to improve shipping connections between upstate New York, Canada, and New York City by better utilizing railroads and trucking, according to the executive director of the Port of Oswego Authority, Zelko Kirincich. He tells BJNN that the authority is collaborating with different railways, including the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway, to get them involved in the project. The integrated model seeks to help businesses get their products to market more economically.

A new rail center will be built in Syracuse, according to Kirincich, because the current one cannot be expanded. He says a new site has been selected and is under contract, and the planned facility will be about 100 acres in size. Kirincich declined to specify the location. He also says Binghamton’s current rail center will likely be expanded, but that is not for certain as other options are still available.

 “It’s good news for jobs, which we definitely need,” he says, although an estimate on how many the project will create has not been made. Kirincich says he hopes that hundreds of full-time, permanent jobs will result from the project. He emphasized that they will be living-wage positions, not “hamburger-flipping jobs.”

Construction is expected to begin toward the latter part of the year, according to Kirincich. “We are moving fast, we want to get this thing in the ground quickly,” he says. We want this to be operational within a year, if not sooner.”

Terrence Hammill, chairman of the Port of Oswego Authority’s board of directors, says the $40 million from the state will get the project off the ground, but it won’t pay for it entirely. He says the total costs of the project are expected to exceed $80 million.

The Port of Oswego is an internationally-accessible shipping port on Lake Ontario. It is the first U.S. port on the Great Lakes along the St. Lawrence Seaway, according to the authority’s website.

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