Project would decrease Canton rail traffic

A nearly $4 million public-private project will relocate some operations of the Canton Railroad Co. away from the neighborhood, significantly reducing train traffic and noise in the increasingly residential and commercial area.

Railroad and state transportation officials said funding has been committed to build a new switching yard a short distance to the northeast by early next year.

The state-owned Canton Railroad conducts switching operations — breaking down and rebuilding trains for cargo distribution throughout the region — on tracks that cross South Newkirk Street and Holabird Avenue, as well as Boston and O’Donnell streets. At times, trains cross and block those roads during switching, which requires that engines blow their horns.

The Kane Street Yard project will turn an unused 10-acre plot just north of Eastern Avenue into a new switching and storage yard, said Bradley Smith, acting director of the office of freight and multimodalism at the Maryland Department of Transportation.

John Magness, president and CEO of the Canton Railroad, which has been operating in the neighborhood for more than 100 years, said the new yard likely will have five stretches of track for switching operations and storage. The company switches cargo with CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway, which share its tracks coming out of the port of Baltimore.

The state has lined up a $1.7 million Federal Railroad Administration grant for the project, the state Transportation Department has committed $1 million and the Canton Railroad has agreed to cover about $1 million in remaining costs, Smith said.

The Maryland Transportation Authority, which owns the Canton Railroad, is purchasing the plot from the city of Baltimore. Baltimore acquired the land using a Federal Highway Administration grant in 1969. The land was recently appraised at $84,000, but the city is selling the property to the state for $8,400 to help move the project along, Smith said.

Magness said the railroad hopes to break ground on the new yard in late spring or early summer, and that operations could begin by the end of 2015.