Phase I of a new rail yard on the south side of Colonels Island at the Port of Brunswick will be operational by the end of June, doubling rail capacity from five to 10 trains per week, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) reported June 24.
GPA-owned and operated, Colonels Island Terminal is one of the nation’s largest auto facilities. It is a dedicated RoRo (roll-on-roll-off) facility. More than 90% of vehicles moving by rail in Brunswick are said to be U.S. exports.
Phase I of terminal’s new rail yard represents a $22 million investment and is expected to increase the Port of Brunswick’s annual rail capacity from 150,000 autos to more than 340,000.
Phase II of the rail yard will bring annual rail capacity to 590,000 units by 2028, according to GPA. It represents a $54.1 million investment, which includes $26.5 million from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program and a $27.6 million match from GPA and Genesee & Wyoming. G&W is the parent company of Golden Isles Terminal Railroad, which serves the Colonel’s Island Terminal and interchanges with Norfolk Southern and CSX (see map below).
According to GPA President and CEO Griff Lynch, the Brunswick RoRo port achieved a “strong performance last month, in light of tariff-related uncertainty.”
Colonels Island Terminal handled 79,134 units of RoRo cargo in May, down 7,474 units or 8.6% from the same month last year, GPA reported. Of the total RoRo volumes, 73,995 were autos and 5,139 were heavy equipment.
May 2024 was GPA’s second busiest month on record for RoRo cargo, at 86,608 units.
For the fiscal year to date (July 1, 2024-May 31, 2025), GPA said it has moved 803,117 units of autos and heavy equipment, up 7,000 units or 1% from the prior-year period.
Meanwhile, GPA reported that the Port of Savannah handled 500,900 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent container units) in May, an increase of 10,565 TEUs or 2.2% compared with the same month last year.
“Three months in a row over half a million TEUs is a testament to customers’ trust in Savannah,” Lynch said. “I’d like to thank GPA employees and our partners at Gateway Terminals and the International Longshoremen’s Association for delivering world-class supply chain efficiency, even during market disruptions.”
GPA said that last month was Savannah’s second busiest May on record, exceeded only by May 2022, when container volumes reached nearly 519,400 TEUs.
For the fiscal year to date, the Port of Savannah has handled 5.3 million TEUs, up 493,635 TEUs or 10.3% in fiscal year 2025.
“Our port master plan’s $4.5 billion investment for the next 10 years is designed to keep the Port always ready for the changing future needs of customers and to grow responsibly, sustainably and sensitive to the communities we serve,” GPA Board Chairman Kent Fountain said. “Port infrastructure is a long-term investment that has significant economic impact for Georgia and we’re proud to serve our customers with the most competitive port operations in the nation.”
GPA noted that its infrastructure investment for the last 10 years has been $3.2 billion.
Further Reading:
- Port of Savannah: Busiest March on Record
- Port of Savannah: Busiest February on Record
- For GPA, Containers Up, Capacity Growing
- Port of Brunswick Takes Top Spot for Autos, Heavy Equipment
- GPA Lands $26.5MM Federal Grant for Colonel’s Island Rail Improvements Project
- GPA Approves $127MM for Blue Ridge Connector
- GPA Prepares for the Future, Adds Inland Rail Connectivity
- CSX, GPA Launch ‘Carolina Connector’ Service
- Georgia Ports Advances Inland Rail Hub Plan
