• The industrial zoned land in the study has an approximate area of 4 million square feet. CSX railway tracks cross this land. It is bordered in the east by the boundaries of Godmanchester, in the north by Ridge Road, in the west by rue Lake Street, and by the presence of the dismantled CN track in the South.
• Just over 3M sq. ft. are currently owned by two residents of Godmanchester.
• The land under review also includes a lot of over 900,000 sq. ft. currently belonging to Fertibec, whose main shareholder wishes to sell.
• Note that the land south of the CSX railroad has no access except through the area of the dismantled CN track still owned by that company.
• Beyond the limits of these lands, on the other side of rue Lake Street and adjacent to the railway, there is a parcel of land owned by CSX. This land, located near the Industrial Complex of the Roskies Family, was also considered suitable for use as public space for a rail trans-loading station, and / or potential site for commercial development.

• Rail transport is the most economical mode of transportation to move goods over long distances. This gap continues to widen with the steady increase in fuel prices.
• Given the globalization of the supply chain and distribution companies, long-distance transportation is increasingly the norm. This is a trend that will only accelerate in the coming decades.
• From an environmental point of view, rail transport is much less polluting than trucking in terms of gas emissions of greenhouse gases per kg transported. The governments of Quebec and Canada want to increase rail transportation, and offer incentives to do so.
• The City of Huntingdon, for its part, was for many years a rail car transfer area between the railway networks of CN and CSX.
• The City of Huntingdon is one of the few cities that can still have access to land zoned “industrial” along CSX, giving direct access to the US market in the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Coast all the way down to Florida.

• The City of Huntingdon would like to develop an intermodal transport industrial park with direct rail access, which will distinguish it from other industrial land available in the region.
• The park could be provided with common rail access infrastructure enabling all companies established in the park to connect their access track (siding) to the CSX network.
• Two common sections are being considered:
• The first section is planned for the boundary of adjacent industrial land to rue Lake Street to serve the companies that set up on this land;
• It would also be possible for a second section to serve the companies that will establish south of the CSX railroad on currently landlocked parcels.
• The concept of an intermodal transport park allows companies to:
• Limit the costs of transshipment for those who already use rail transport
• Significantly reduce the costs of long-distance transportation (inbound or outbound) for those who currently use truck transportation;
• Reduce their environmental footprint by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs).
• The concept of grouping rail transportation users in one place would also gather a critical mass of moving rail cars that will be of interest to CSX, necessarily improving the service that carrier provides on the territory of Montérégie East

Rail access allows companies to take advantage of the strong trend favouring the train as long distance mode of transportation. It increases competitiveness in inbound and outbound transportation costs, which are significantly lower than trucking. Grants of up to 50% of the conversion costs are provided by the MTQ to help SMEs to convert to rail transportation and thus reduce GHGs.

For more information on this subject:

Programme for the reduction or avoidance of GHG emissions through the development of intermodal transportation