New intermodal yard promises thousands of jobs

A major construction project in Southern Wood Country is on track and ready to get underway. Ground-breaking ceremonies were held Friday for the construction of the new CSX Intermodal rail facility that promises hundreds of new jobs.

A few miles west of North Baltimore, a host of dignitaries and townspeople gathered for the kick off the brand new state of the art intermodal yard that is to take shape there in abut two years. It's a yard that CSX contends will mean big things and lots of jobs for the future, including 400 immediate construction jobs.

Governor Ted Strickland said that rail transportation overall is poised to be a major part of the future economy for the state of Ohio and the region. Construction is expected to begin soon and should be completed by 2011, transforming an open field in Wood County into one the most vital rail yards in the country where large containers hauled by rail cars will be transferred to trucks for regional distribution.

Residents of nearby North Baltimore, hard hit by the recession and unemployment, are ready to see some recovery, so that when the train horns blast their way through town in the future, as one Wood County official says, it will be the sound of money. This $235 million dollar rail yard is said to be the most state-of-the-art transfer yard in the country and will be the cornerstone of a vast new network of rail transportation to be called the "National Gateway."