The facility would be based at Global’s distribution terminal on the Hudson River just north of the Port of Albany, and adjacent to CP’s Kenwood intermodal yards.
The ethanol facility would be the second in the area. CSX Transportation runs trains to an ethanol terminal owned by Buckeye Partners L.P. just south of the port.
CP Rail and Global are seeking $8.8 million in federal stimulus money to help pay for the project, said Steve Fisk, senior manager for corporate business development at CP Rail’s Clifton Park office.
The Capital District Transportation Committee first heard the proposal at a meeting on Wednesday, but tabled it until the next meeting.
The CDTC reviews transportation projects for federal funding throughout the Capital Region.
“Members felt they didn’t have enough time” to review the proposal, said Deborah Stacey, senior transportation planner for the CDTC.
CP Rail, which owns the Delaware & Hudson Railway, the Soo Line in the Midwest and the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad in the upper Midwest, which was acquired in October, would operate unit trains carrying ethanol from North and South Dakota, Minnesota and other ethanol-producing states to Albany.
Trains likely would use the CP Rail lines from the upper Midwest to Montreal and then head south to the Capital Region. Fisk estimated the terminal would handle at least one 80- to 100-car train a week to start.
The ethanol would be stored in six tanks owned by Global that would be refurbished under the plan.
From there, the ethanol could be distributed locally to be blended with gasoline or loaded onto barges to be shipped to terminals elsewhere in the Northeast for blending.
Fisk said that barging the ethanol to Long Island would remove truck traffic that now crosses bridges from New Jersey ethanol terminals.
“From the Department of Transportation’s perspective, it’s a real home run,” he said.
Fisk said he would like to see construction, expected to take six months, begin by mid-summer.