Julie McCombs
Sen. Lindsey Graham is due at the Inland Port in Greer this afternoon for a ceremony. Graham was guest speaker with Sen. Tim Scott Thursday night at the Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce's annual banquet at the Embassy Suites in Greenville.
Jim Newsome, President and CEO of the South Carolina Ports Authority and Wick Moorman, Chairman, President and CEO of Norfolk Southern, will join state and port officials and customers served by the South Carolina Inland Port.
Today’s visit is virtually a grand opening event with comments from Haley and Graham to community and business leaders invited.
The Norfolk Southern inspection train is designed for company officers to view the railroad’s property and visit its employees throughout its 22-state territory. The train consists of restored vintage locomotives and passenger cars.
The Inland Port opened in late October to improve the efficiency of international container movements between the Port of Charleston, the South Carolina Upstate and neighboring states. In partnership with Norfolk Southern, the project utilizes an existing overnight train service to handle double-stack container trains to and from the Port of Charleston’s seaport facilities.
The SCIP is expected to convert an estimated 20,000 container movements from truck to rail in the first year of operation.