I've always felt Norfolk was a viable alternative to more congested ports further north. Getting the traffic off I-64 would help a great deal.
After the west coast longshoreman's strike back in 2002, I instructed our exporters to stop using the Los Angeles area ports and we switched mostly to the Seattle area. But when we use the east coast ports of entry, they are somehow still obsessed with using New York almost exclusively. Since we are talking about a day or two rather than a week or more extra on the east coast ports, I'm having a harder time making headway with getting Norfolk considered.
I'd like to know which steamship line you worked for. Freepmail me if you don't want to post.
I worked for Evergreen, great company. Unfortunately, I was a victim of the centralization trend, but they treated us well. Perhaps you will be able to make headway once the Panama Canal expansion is complete and Norfolk is the only East Coast port that can handle the larger vessels. Rates should be much lower and labor relations are very good as well. If I recall, Norfolk Southern does route to the Midwest via Pittsburgh in about 3 days transit time, but Evergreen was routing Pittsburgh cargo through NYC while I was there as well. Not sure what the status is of the Heartland Corridor, but that was apparently going to cut the transit time to Chicago to 2 days. Not sure if it would have cut the Pittsburgh time.
I got layed off in 2009. I miss the business, but unfortunately, other lines and the industry in general didn’t pay enough to stay in it.