Maryland officials gathered in the Dundalk area Monday to commemorate the arrival by rail of “double-stacked” shipping containers to the Port of Baltimore, thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure improvements.
At the center of it all was downtown Baltimore’s Howard Street Tunnel, the underground rail line snaking roughly from Camden Yards to the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
The brick-and-concrete tunnel constructed between 1891 and 1895 had a vertical height about 1.5 feet shy of the 21-foot clearance needed to stack two containers on railcars.
Deepening the tunnel, and completing nearly two dozen associated infrastructure projects, required decades of wrangling between government and the private sector, officials said Monday. They staged their comments before a banner emblazoned with the words “Double Stack Is Here!,” affixed to a shipping container aboard a double-stacked train.
“When people started talking about this project initially — here’s the thing — I wasn’t even born yet,” said Gov. Wes Moore (D), who is 47 years old. “Because for too long, we got comfortable with waiting, we got comfortable with delaying.”
Double-stacked railcars first began passing through the Baltimore corridor on May 4, said Brian Hammock, a spokesperson for CSX, which operates the corridor. Though trains can now traverse the corridor, some additional construction work remains, including on two Baltimore bridges.
Officials believe that the refurbished rail line will bring some 160,000 extra containers into the Port of Baltimore each year, and establish Baltimore as a connection point for double-stacked cargo heading toward the Midwest.
“Now, with the Howard Street Tunnel and the final bridge work complete, CSX has full double-stack clearance between the Port of Baltimore, key Midwestern markets and the broader East Coast network,” said Steve Angel, CSX president and CEO.
The project’s completion could also transfer numerous cargo trips from trucks to rail, Angel said. Over the next 30 years, federal officials estimate that 1.2 billion truck miles will be avoided, saving an estimated 137 million gallons of fuel, according to the project’s environmental assessment from the Federal Railroad Administration.
“This project is about much more than just a tunnel, guys. It’s about the people,” Moore said. “It’s about the workers who just want good-paying jobs, and the opportunity to build a life in Maryland, and to stay here in Maryland. It’s about the families of Dundalk who want cleaner air and less congestion on the roads.”
Maryland contributed the largest sum to the project, at $217 million, CSX contributed $130 million and Pennsylvania chipped in with $23 million, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). The project also received a $125 million federal grant, and the port received $16 million to be equipped for double-stacking, Van Hollen said.
“Today, we see the fruits of all that partnership over many years,” Van Hollen said.
The completion of the Howard Street project comes amid already-record-setting traffic at the port. Earlier this year, port officials announced that it had handled 50 million tons of cargo in 2025, its second best year, even as it was still recovering from the fall of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March 2024, which clogged the shipping channel leading to the port.
Nearby in Sparrows Point, Tradepoint Atlantic is beginning dredging work on a new deep-berth container terminal, which will accommodate large ships looking to offload cargo in Baltimore.
“Today marks the beginning of an even brighter new chapter for the Port of Baltimore, for Baltimore and Maryland,” Van Hollen said. “The port that was already critical to the success of our state is now being given a new opportunity for continued growth and continued prosperity.”