Norfolk Southern is offering a new grain export service to the Port of New York and New Jersey ahead of the US Midwest soybean and corn harvest. The additional routing comes as ag shippers seek alternatives to Southern California ports and grain shipments face delays and higher costs due to low water levels along the Mississippi River.

NS last week announced it would offer weekly intermodal export service from Columbus, Ohio, to the GCT Bayonne marine terminal at the New York-New Jersey port. Containers will originate at Discovery Park, a terminal in Columbus owned by third-party logistics provider World Distribution Services that serves a variety of industrial goods shippers. Jonathan Beltran, director of international intermodal for NS, told JOC.com the new service to New York-New Jersey targets Ohio’s grain shippers. Discovery Park previously only offered outbound service to the Port of Virginia.

“It represents a good opportunity for us to put in another service in Discovery Park to access the export market to New York from Columbus,” Beltran said. “We want to support the grain market there, that’s mainly ag products like corn.”

The new service also comes after NS started a $75-per-container incentive program for ocean carriers at the New York-New Jersey and Virginia ports to better balance export containers with import boxes, thereby reducing the need to reposition empty intermodal rail cars. Beltran said the new Ohio to New York-New Jersey export service is the result of the incentive program, which also benefits the port by increasing export volumes.

“It helps balance the imports with exports,” he said. “New York is a heavy import consumption market, so we worked closely with the port there to incentivize more exports. We hope to scale it to more markets.”