http://www.dailygazette.com

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PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Forklift operators off-load railway cars of fresh produce at Railex in the Rotterdam Industrial Complex last week.

Cold train to freshness
Railex transports produce efficiently from state of Washington to Rotterdam hub — and from there to parts of eastern seaboard
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Paul Esposito can count on one hand the number of times his Railex trains have been late. Each produce shipment is supposed to make the trip from Wallula, Wash., to Rotterdam in 124 hours or less. And since the launch of the service nearly a year ago, the train has been tardy only three times.
   The first tardy train showed up several hours late during the New Year’s Eve holiday. Three months later, another train was waylaid by a fiery 28-car train derailment that caused the evacuation of several hundred people near the city of Oneida.
   The third instance occurred last month, after massive flooding left many of the Midwestern states in turmoil. In each instance, the trains arrived at the Rotterdam Industrial Park less than 10 hours behind schedule, according to the company’s senior vice president.
   “Which is pretty amazing,” he said, perusing a chart on the shipments.
   Once a week, the company hauls produce such as potatoes, onions and apples from Washington to Rotterdam, where it is then routed by truck to purveyors across the Eastern seaboard. Established in October, Railex now serves nearly every regional food purveyor, including Golub’s Price Chopper, Sysco Foods, U.S. Food Services, Stop N’ Shop and Walmart, to name a few.
   Normally, Railex shipments arrive more than a day early, having sometimes made the cross-country trip in under 100 hours. It’s a hallmark of the operation, arriving ahead of schedule with shipments that are kept nearly as fresh as the day they left the Pacific Northwest.
RAPID, EFFICIENT
   Esposito said the express line across the nation also conserves fuel by reducing the number of tractor-trailers that would otherwise add to congestion on the nation’s highways. With each train representing about 200 truckloads of produce, he estimated the company will save roughly 5.2 million gallons of diesel fuel within its first year of operation.
   “This is the most efficient and really the green way of moving produce across the country,” he said.
   Esposito discusses Railex in the same rapid-fire pace it operates: quickly, from point to point and with no time wasted. The business itself is based largely on the concept of eliminating the inefficiencies that have plagued rail transportation for years.
   Ordinarily, boxcars and refrigerated cars aren’t moved directly from coast to coast. Often, cars are unhitched and can sit for days in a switching yards while waiting to monitor shipments online while the train is in transit. The 55 refrigerated boxcars comprising the train are never disconnected, ensuring their payload is minimally jostled
for a connection to a train moving closer toward the intended destination.
   Produce can often take more than two weeks to get across the country with conventional freight services. As a result, some products can arrive in unappetizing condition and with an expiring shelf life.
   Railex was the idea of Andy Pollak, the chief executive offi cer of Ampco Distribution Services, a Long Island-based produce distribution company. Pollak envisioned a streamlined trip that would cut out the waiting and guarantee shipments within five days.
   “He knew he could whittle down the transit time,” Esposito said.
   The company secured agreements with Canadian Pacifi c and CSX Transportation, allowing it to direct passage to the east. The 55-car Railex trains stop only to refuel and switch crews along their 12-state journey.
   Each boxcar is climate-controlled and outfitted with a Global Positioning System transponder, which allows both Railex and its customers along the way.
ARMY OF WORKERS
   Railex trains roll right through the distribution center in Rotterdam, where an army of workers swiftly removes thousands of tons of produce from 14-car segments at a time. Even the loading dock is climate-controlled, so that the produce never changes temperature as it’s removed from the boxcars.
   Trains arrive in the early hours of the morning and are often unloaded by the evening, with a turnaround of about 14 hours. There’s chaotic symphony of movement and a cacophony of sound while the trains are unloaded; dozens of forklifts sweep through the 250,000-squarefoot facility, whisking massive pallets of everything from potatoes to citrus fruit from one loading dock to the next.
   Despite the fast pace of the operation, it’s highly controlled. Each pallet of produce is tagged with a “license plate,” which workers can quickly scan and route to the appropriate truck bay.
   Once the boxcars are empty crews then focus on filling them with products headed back to the Washington facility. Since starting in October, Esposito said trains have brought everything from beer to orange juice to imported fruit back to the West Coast.
   “Anything that needs to go west,” he said.
   Railex came to Rotterdam as a result of a great amount of planning. The company had initially considered a hub in the northern New Jersey area, but found the railroad infrastructure was lacking.
   State Economic Development officials caught wind of the fledgling company and pitched Rotterdam as an area that might suit its needs.
   The Rotterdam Industrial Park had both the size and location to entice the company. With its proximity to east-west rail lines and location near interstates 87, 88 and 90, Esposito said the location was ideal.
   “This is what we consider the center of the Northeast,” he said.
   However, getting all the pieces in place was an amazing undertaking, explained Ray Gillen, the executive director of the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority. In the end, Metroplex, the state Department of Transportation and the Galesi Group, which owns the industrial park, were able to forge a location suitable for the $18 million facility in about eight months.
   “It was a real team effort,” he said. “Everyone was putting on the fullcourt press, telling these guys to come to Rotterdam.”
HELPING COMMUNITY
   The result has been nearly 110 full- and part-time jobs coming to the county, a number expected to eventually grow to more than 300 as the company grows. Railex has also brought more than $200,000 in new town, county and school tax revenue within its first year of operation.
   But Railex hasn’t been entirely about business. The company has also strived to help the community and region as a whole.
   Shortly after the first produce train rolled into Rotterdam, Railex began donating thousands of pounds of fresh produce to the Northeast Regional Food Bank in Latham. The food comes from crates that have been slightly damaged or are deemed unusable but still edible; rather than discard it, Railex decided to donate it.
   Within the first two months of operation, the company gave more than 50,000 pounds of produce to the food bank. To date, they’ve supplied about 333,700 pounds, becoming one of the agency’s top donors.
   “We’ve had an excellent relationship with Railex,” said Associate Director Joanne Dwyer. “They helped us both with food donations and financial donations and have been very supportive of us.”
   Railex may also offer future opportunities for local growers in New York, many of whom were initially cool to the idea of a produce mainline running from the West Coast. Now that the company is established, many farmers are now considering ways they can use it to reach markets that would otherwise be out of range, said Ray Eckhardt, president of the state Vegetable Growers Association.
   “Many of the forward-thinking growers are saying, ‘OK it’s here, it’s working, now how can I fit in,’ ” said Eckhardt, who operates Kinderhook Creek Farm in Stephentown.
   Already, local farmers have capitalized on trucks leaving the Railex terminus and destined for markets across the Northeast. Trucks leaving the facility are sometimes not filled to capacity and can accommodate some additional cargo.
   Local growers are also trying to establish a type of contact base within the Railex facility, where they could coordinate the availability of local produce with shipments leaving Railex and demand abroad. Though such cooperation is still in the discussion phase, Eckhardt said it is a real possibility.
   “As they get more experience in what they’re doing, we’ll be able to figure out better how we fit in,” he said.
   The companies Railex serves are also looking toward to the future of the service. With Railex expected to markedly expand within the next 18 months, the diversity of the product they bring to the Northeast is also expected to multiply, said Neil Golub, chief executive officer of Price Chopper parent Golub Corp. and a proponent of Railex from its inception.
   Golub said opening up a line between Rotterdam and California would help temper the cost of lettuce and other leafy items, which sometimes cost more to haul than to produce. He said an operation like Railex should be able to haul these items for much less than conventional transportation.
   “Once they open up California, that’s where the tonnage is,” he said. “When they do, our business with them is probably going to multiply by a lot.”

Workers at Railex at the Rotterdam Industrial Park sort fresh potatoes for packaging.

that looks like fun.....

I just finished going to their website and asking what jobs they currently have open, or if there's a place on the website for them.  I'll let everybody know if I hear anything back.

talked to someone there----dont want to be a picker/sorter.....

I hear that the place is eeemmmmacccculate! You could eat off their floors. It's good jobs for Rotterdam.

Railex update - Second train to be coming.  Good thing I didn't rely on the People's Gazette to find this.


Here's the page for contact information there.
http://railexusa.com/rmcontact.php

Here's a bunch of contact info in case anyone's looking for it from Railex's website.

Railex Northeast
Railex LLC Rotterdam
105 Rotterdam Industrial Park
Rotterdam, NY 12306
Phone: (518) 347-6040
Fax: (518) 356-3908

General Manager: Bill Collins 518-347-6044 bcollins@railexusa.com
Warehouse Manager: Tim Bibel 518-347-6066 tbibel@railexusa.com
Transportation Manager: Ron Rera 518-347-6049 rrera@railexusa.com
Outbound Load Planner: Rondi Edmonson 518-347-6047 redmonson@railexusa.com
Inbound/Outbound Appointments: Betty Evans 518-347-6048 bevans@railexusa.com
Sales: Charlie Giunta 518-347-6051 cgiunta@railexusa.com
Sales: James Hanlon 518-347-6054 jhanlon@railexusa.com
Sales: Bill Welker 518-347-6050 bwelker@railexusa.com

Hours of Operation
Monday 7AM-5PM
Tuesday 6AM on (24 Hours)
Wednesday 24 Hours
Thursday 7AM-Midnight
Friday 7AM-5PM
Saturday 7AM-3PM

I also heard that they are going to expand their facility and hiring more employees. That is a plus for this area for sure!

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Railex to add second produce train
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
By Justin Mason (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

Forklift operators offload 55 railway cars of fresh produce at Railex in the Rotterdam Industrial Complex back in August.

ROTTERDAM — Railex will add a second train service next month to transport produce between Rotterdam and Wallula, Wash.
Company officials said customer demand and the overwhelming success of the first five-day train service established last year is the reason for the additional train. The second weekly train will leave for Rotterdam starting Feb. 9, according to Railex.
Since October 2006, the company has hauled produce such as potatoes, onions and apples from Washington to Rotterdam, where it is then routed by truck to purveyors along the eastern seaboard. Railex now serves nearly every regional food purveyor, including Golub Co.’s Price Chopper supermarket chain, Sysco Foods, U.S. Food Services, Stop N’ Shop and Wal-Mart.
The 55-car Railex trains typically make the 12-state journey in 124 hours or less. Each boxcar is climate-controlled and outfitted with a global positioning system transponder, which allows both Railex and its customers to track shipments along the way.

Thanks for coming in and reading, Justin. Notice, I posted this 3 days before you got around to it.  Maybe it was my posting that got this in the news???

The gazette seems to always be behind. The TU was the first to print the highest salaries in Schenectady. Well, it was actually their on-line version that printed it. So Justin either got it from Kevin's post or he waited until Railex called him.

http://www.timesunion.com

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Railex stays on track for expanded service
Rotterdam distribution center to see more West Coast train traffic

By ERIC ANDERSON, Deputy business editor
First published: Friday, May 30, 2008

ROTTERDAM -- Railex LLC expects to triple train traffic into its Rotterdam distribution center this fall as it launches a new service from California and adds a second train on its route from Washington state.
The 19-month-old service provides one refrigerated unit train per week each way. The trains, initially 55 cars, have been making the cross-country trip in five days or less, carrying vegetables, fruit and other perishables.

     
The company estimates each train carries the equivalent of 220 tractor-trailers and saves 5.2 million gallons of diesel fuel a year. At $5 a gallon for diesel, that gives the company a cost advantage.
"We are more efficient (in) diesel fuel consumption," said Paul Esposito, vice president of sales and logistics for Railex.
The company is building a distribution center in Delano, Calif., its third one, which will be completed in September. Existing centers are in Rotterdam and in Wallula, Wash. Railex employs 150 workers in Rotterdam.
Plans for a second train from Washington state were delayed this spring after a Jan. 19 landslide in Oregon blocked the main route the trains take. That route has been reopened, and Esposito said the second train likely will begin operating "sometime in late summer."
In the meantime, the original train has been lengthened, to 60 or more boxcars, he said.
The "unit trains," as they're called, can be tracked by satellite as they move across the country. Customers also can monitor temperatures inside each of the cars as the trains move between Wallula and Rotterdam.
Union Pacific Railroad and CSX Transportation jointly operate the trains, which stop only for crew changes and refueling.
Railex has been seeking cargo for the return trip to the West Coast. Tropicana products have been brought north from Florida by train, trucked to Rotterdam, and then taken to Washington by Railex for distribution in western Canada, Esposito said.
The trains may be used this fall to ship New York state apples to Washington state processing plants, where they would be converted to juice and applesauce, state apple industry officials have said.
In an era of increasing shipping costs, "it's the way long-haul produce should move through the country," Esposito said.

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The company estimates each train carries the equivalent of 220 tractor-trailers and saves 5.2 million gallons of diesel fuel a year. At $5 a gallon for diesel, that gives the company a cost advantage.

That's a $26,000,000 ($26 MILLION) savings in fuel costs

Has anyone noticed a corresponding drop in produce prices at the consumer level?  I sure haven't.

The prices will NEVER come back down to what they use to be. They never do. But I am glad to hear that Railex is expanding and doing well. We need that for sure.

not to mention the produce is pretty crappy for the price demanded of it......

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2008/08/11/daily29.html?surround=lfn

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Railex named corporation of the year by Sch'dy chamber
The Business Review (Albany)

Railex LLC, a company that makes cross-country deliveries of fresh produce by train, will receive top corporate honors at the Chamber of Schenectady County's annual business awards dinner in October.

Railex, which has about 150 employees at its Rotterdam hub, will be honored as corporation of the year at an Oct. 21 dinner at Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia. Railex is headquartered in Long Island.

"Schenectady has much to celebrate these days, and our vibrant business community is a big part of the renaissance," said Angelo Mazzone, who chairs the chamber's board of directors. Mazzone founded, owns and operates Glen Sanders Mansion.

The other awards and their winners include:

Entrepreneur of the year: Ray Bleser, owner, Northeastern Fine Jewelry Inc. The award recognizes the leader of a company with less than 100 employees;
Executive of the year: Ray Gillen, chairman of the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority. The award is "reserved for a natural-born leader and charismatic go-getter;"
Tech Valley Innovation award: TransTech Systems Inc., a company that creates systems that test asphalt and soil at construction sites;
Rising Star award: LT's Grill, in Niskayuna. The award goes to a business less than two years old that "exhibits potential for long-term success;"
Say Schenectady tourism award: Schahet Hotels, which owns the Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn in Schenectady.
Enterprise of the year: The Mossey Group, a marketing communications firm in Schenectady.
The chamber will also honor Gabriel Basil, the retiring president of Schenectady County Community College, at its October dinner.

Why wouldn't this be celebrated in the same town that the company does business?  How about over at Mallozzis?  Don't want to bring people to Rotterdam to actually maybe do some side business?  Congrats, Railex.

Mr. Mazzone (Glen Sanders) is the chair of the Chamber of commerce. Also, if you notice, Railex was the only Rotterdam business being honored. The rest were not.

OK, I see, but if the BIGGEST reward was going to someone in Rotterdam, then I still lean my way.  It's not as though Jumpin' Jacks was getting the reward, so it should be in the same area (not that I think Jumpin' Jacks is bad, they're GREAT (as Tony the tiger says!)).

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Railex invests $800G in new track at Rotterdam facility
Friday, August 22, 2008
By Justin Mason (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

ROTTERDAM — Railex has nearly completed work on a new track near its 250,000-square-foot facility in the Rotterdam Corporate Park.
The new set of rails is the fourth at the facility and represents a nearly $800,000 investment by the fledgling company, which first opened for business in October 2006.
Paul Esposito, vice president of sales and logistics for Railex, said the tracks will help accommodate a third train the company expects to add in late September. But instead of bringing produce from the company’s warehouse in Wallula, Wash., the new train will be hauling agricultural goods from California’s sun belt.
By next month, Esposito said Railex will open a 200,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Delano Calif., which will begin shipping a variety of sensitive, West Coast-grown produce to the East Coast. These items include everything from lettuce to cherries and grapes, “pretty much whatever the consumer demands,” he said.
Esposito said the climate-controlled trains have already been hauling loads more sensitive than the onions, citrus and potatoes they initially carried. But instead of hauling it from the source in California, trucks have shipped the produce and products north to the company’s facility in Washington, which packages the trains for Rotterdam.
The third train will operate much like the others, with the company’s usual guarantee that product will move from west to east in less than five days. The company expects to haul the equivalent of 400 truckloads of product from its California facility each week.
Esposito said products aboard the Railex trains won’t be limited to produce. The company has already shipped more than 1 million bottles of wine from the Columbia Gorge region on the border of Oregon and Washington.
“They used to have the long haul by truck,” he said, “but they saw the benefit of utilizing the Railex system.”

http://www.dailygazette.com

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ROTTERDAM
Railex line to haul Calif. produce
West Coast facility is slated to open in fall
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Railex has added a new set of tracks at the Rotterdam Corporate Park in anticipation of the fall opening of its new facility in California.
    The company has nearly completed work on the tracks near its 250,000-square-foot Rotterdam produce distribution operation. The new set of rails is the fourth at the facility and represents a nearly $800,000 investment by the company, which opened for business in October 2006.
    Paul Esposito, the vice president of sales and logistics for Railex, said the tracks will help accommodate a second train the company expects to add sometime in late September. But instead of bringing produce from the company’s warehouse in Wallula, Wash., the new train will be hauling agricultural goods from California.
    By next month, Esposito said Railex will open a 200,000-squarefoot cold storage facility in Delano, Calif., which is to start shipping West Coast produce east. These items will include lettuce, broccoli and grapes, “pretty much whatever the consumer demands,” he said.
    Esposito said the climate-controlled trains have already been hauling loads more fragile than the onions, citrus fruits and potatoes they initially carried. Trucks now ship the produce and products north to the company’s facility in Washington, which packages the trains for Rotterdam, where they are sent on for regional distribution.
    The new train will operate much like the others, with the company’s usual guarantee that products will move from west to east in less than five days. The company expects to haul the equivalent of 400 truckloads from its California facility each week, a figure that could increase if a third train is added next year as anticipated.
    Esposito said products aboard the Railex trains won’t be limited to produce. The company has already shipped more than 1 million bottles of wine from the Columbia River basin along the Oregon and Washington border.
    “They used to have the long haul by truck,” he said. “But they saw the benefit of utilizing the Railex system.”
    With each 55-car train, the company estimates, it hauls an estimated 220 truckloads of produce cross-country each week, saving roughly 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel per train and lowering emissions by 85,000 metric tons per year. Each boxcar is climate-controlled and outfitted with a GPS transponder, which allows both Railex and its customers to track shipments.
    Demand for the service is enough that even the size of the Railex trains has risen. Esposito said trains during the growing season in Washington have expanded to upwards of 70 cars.
    Railex is also planning to establish a southeastern hub somewhere in southern Georgia or Florida. Eventually, the company plans to establish another terminus in the east-central United States, somewhere between Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis., Mo.
    Last week, the company was designated the Corporation of the Year, an honor presented by the Chamber of Schenectady County to large businesses distinguished by growth.
    Ray Gillen, executive director of the Metroplex Development Authority, lauded the rapid growth of Railex, which his agency helped bring to the corporate park in 2006. He said the company has demonstrated how efficient transportation can foster rapid economic growth not only in the county but in other areas of the nation.
    “This investment is another sign of Railex’s success both in Rotterdam and around the nation as more and more customers sign up to use their super-fast and fuel-efficient transportation system,” he said of the company’s expansion.     

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2008/10/06/daily16.html?surround=lfn&brthrs=1

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Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - 1:29 PM EDT
Railex receives first produce delivery from Calif.

The Business Review (Albany)

The first rail delivery of produce from California arrived this morning at Railex in Rotterdam, N.Y., a significant achievement for the growing distribution company.

The 55-car train from Delano, Calif., arrived at 6 a.m. today at Railex’s depot at the Rotterdam Industrial Park, officials said.

The trip took less than five days and saved an estimated 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel that would have been needed to transport the same produce by tractor trailers.

After arriving in Rotterdam the produce is distributed to supermarket chains and other food companies.

Railex opened the distribution warehouse in 2006, investing more than $20 million to build the 250,000 square foot facility. The company also operates a facility in Wallula, Wash.

Railex recently invested more than $800,000 to expand rail access in anticipation of the arrival of trains from California.

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Suit says noose left in locker
Ex-Railex worker claims racial discrimination complaint led to his firing

By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
First published in print: Saturday, November 15, 2008

ROTTERDAM — A black warehouse worker claims he was fired from Railex after complaining about discrimination, and that on his last day he found racially offensive comments scrawled on his locker and a noose hanging inside it.
     
In his civil action filed in federal court, Noel Sealy said he joined Railex in November 2006 as a pallet jack driver at the Rotterdam Industrial Park site. The suit said he was repeatedly subjected to racial discrimination that included derogatory racial slurs by managers and co-workers, creating a hostile work environment.

After he went to supervisors, they retaliated by firing him, according to the court document. The suit said Sealy didn't believe the company ever investigated what happened at his locker.

In response to the legal action, filed during the summer, Railex in September denied all the allegations outlined in the suit and requested the complaint be dismissed.

The civil action seeks unspecified damages and legal fees. Sealy's attorney, Adam Virant of New York City, declined comment Friday.

Paul Esposito, Railex's spokesman in Rotterdam, said Friday afternoon he was unaware of the suit and would look into it, but failed to immediately return a call seeking comment. David E. Block, an attorney representing Railex, was on vacation Friday and could not be reached for comment.

The matter is scheduled for an initial conference Monday morning before U. S. Magistrate Judge David E. Peebles in Syracuse. The legal action was filed in Northern District of New York in July.

Sealy, 50, who has a Cincinnati address listed on his suit, had worked at the produce distribution center about seven months.............http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=739925