Double-stack is live: how the Howard Street Tunnel changes your Baltimore-to-Chicago landed cost

Double-stack trains run out of Seagirt since June 22, 2026

On June 22, 2026, Governor Moore cut the ribbon on double-stack rail operations at the Port of Baltimore. CSX had reopened the expanded Howard Street Tunnel on September 26, 2025, ahead of schedule. The project raised the tunnel clearance by 18 inches and fixed 21 other clearance points in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. It came in at $495 million against a $566 million projection. The State of Maryland put in $217 million.

The result is simple to state. A container that lands at Seagirt Marine Terminal, the container terminal at the Port of Baltimore, can now ride a double-stacked CSX train to the Midwest with full clearance the whole way. The Maryland Port Administration (MPA) expects about 160,000 more containers a year because of it.

That changes the arithmetic on a lane many importers run: Baltimore to Chicago.

The problem: a lane that defaulted to truck

Chicago is about 700 road miles from the Seagirt gate. That is far enough that rail should compete. For years it did not compete well out of Baltimore. The tunnel under downtown Baltimore could not clear a double-stacked train. Midwest boxes rode single-stack, which spreads the cost of the train over half as many containers, or they went by truck.

So the default for many importers was a truck from the pier to a distribution center in Illinois, Indiana or Wisconsin. The default is now worth testing. If you have not re-run the Chicago lane since June 2026, your landed cost model is out of date.

What double-stack means in practice

A double-stack train carries two containers in each well car, one on top of the other. The same train length, crew and locomotives move about twice the boxes. The railroad’s cost per container falls, and the shipper sees that in the ramp-to-ramp rate it is offered.

Three Baltimore specifics make it matter more here than at ports with a long dray to the rail ramp:

Seagirt has an on-dock CSX intermodal terminal within 1,000 feet of the bulkhead. The box moves from the ship to the train without a street dray.
The clearance work covers the full route to the Midwest, not just the tunnel. A train leaving Seagirt does not need to be re-blocked to single-stack anywhere en route.
Baltimore is the closest Atlantic port to the major Midwestern population and manufacturing centers, per the MPA. The rail haul is shorter than from ports farther north or south.

Read the plain-language port guide at /port/howard-street-tunnel-double-stack/ for the project history. This article is about what you do with it.

Worked example: one 40-ft box, Baltimore to Chicago

Every number below is an assumption chosen to show the method. None of them is a quoted rate. Your desk gets real quotes from carrier partners for the lane and the week you ship.

Assumptions

Input	Assumed value
Cargo	One 40-ft container of palletized consumer goods
Declared value of the cargo	Assume $120,000
Destination	A distribution center in the Chicago area
Road distance, Seagirt gate to DC	About 700 miles
Truck, all-in door rate	Assume $2.60 per mile, so about $1,820
Rail, ramp-to-ramp, Seagirt to Chicago	Assume $1,150
Destination drayage, Chicago ramp to DC	Assume $325
Origin drayage to the rail ramp	$0, because the Seagirt railhead is on-dock
Chassis and ramp handling at destination	Assume $75
Truck transit, pier to DC	Assume 2 days
Rail transit, pier to DC including destination dray	Assume 5 days
Annual inventory carrying cost	Assume 20 percent of cargo value

The comparison

Line	Truck	Rail
Linehaul	$1,820	$1,150
Destination drayage	included	$325
Chassis and handling	included	$75
Transport subtotal	$1,820	$1,550
Extra days in transit versus truck	0	3
Carrying cost of those extra days	$0	about $197
Landed transport cost with time	$1,820	about $1,747

The carrying cost line works like this. At an assumed 20 percent annual carrying cost, $120,000 of inventory costs about $66 a day to hold. Three extra days on the rail is about $197. At these assumed numbers, rail still comes out about $73 ahead per box, and about $270 ahead if you ignore the time value of the inventory.

That margin is thin. It is meant to be. The point of the example is to show which inputs move the answer.

What moves the answer

Cargo value. Double the declared value to $240,000 and the three extra days cost about $395. Truck wins at these assumptions. Low-value, dense cargo such as flooring, paper or canned goods leans hard toward rail.
Transit spread. If rail delivers in four days instead of five, the carrying penalty drops by a third. If a box sits at the Chicago ramp waiting for a chassis, the penalty grows.
Fuel. A truck burns fuel for every one of the 700 miles. A fuel surcharge swing shows up in the truck column mile by mile.
Volume. One box is a spot decision. Twenty boxes a week is a lane you can contract, and rail pricing rewards steady, forecastable volume.
Empty return. A truck that must bring a chassis and container back toward the port carries that cost in the rate. Rail returns the empty on the next train.

When rail wins

Freight valued at the low end for its cube, where three days of carrying cost is small.
Steady weekly volume to a DC within a short dray of a Chicago-area ramp.
Programs that already plan on a week or more of safety stock, so a longer transit does not force a stockout.
Importers who want fewer trucks on the road, whether for sustainability reporting or for fewer delivery appointments to manage.
Any program where the destination DC has a rail-aware receiving window and does not charge for a container that arrives on a Tuesday instead of a Monday.

When truck wins

High-value electronics, apparel drops tied to a launch date, or anything where a two-day transit protects revenue.
A destination that is a long dray from any rail ramp, so the drayage line eats the rail saving.
Shipments where you need to transload at the port first, for example to split a container across three customers. Our transload partner at Dundalk can strip the box and load trailers direct. See /services/transloading/.
Weeks when rail ramps are congested and the transit spread opens past the assumption above.
One-off moves where there is no time to set up a rail billing arrangement.

Most importers end up with both. The desk runs the base volume on rail and keeps truck for the expedite share. That mix is the real answer, not a one-time switch.

What to do now

Pull your last 12 months of Baltimore-to-Midwest moves and tag each one with declared value, transit need and destination ZIP.
Re-price the steady share by rail using the on-dock railhead at Seagirt. Ask for the ramp-to-ramp rate and the destination dray as separate lines, so you can see which one moves.
Set a cargo-value threshold above which the box defaults to truck. The worked example suggests the method. Your numbers set the line.
Check your DC receiving rules. A rail box arrives on a chassis from a local drayage partner, often with a tighter delivery window than an over-the-road truck.
Watch the ramp. The MPA expects about 160,000 more containers a year through the tunnel. More volume means more trains, and it can also mean busier ramps at both ends.

Baltimore 3PL does not own the train or the truck. The desk owns the comparison and the result. We quote both modes from carrier partners, run the carrying-cost line with your value, and move the box the way the arithmetic says. Drayage at the Baltimore end runs through our drayage partners who work Seagirt every day. See /services/drayage/ and the port-side detail at /port/seagirt-marine-terminal/. If you want the rail side handled as one piece, start at /services/intermodal-rail/.

What to ask any 3PL before you tender

Is the rail rate ramp-to-ramp or door-to-door, and which ramp?
Who pays chassis per diem at the destination ramp if the box waits?
What is the published transit, and what was the actual transit on the last ten boxes?
Can the same desk switch a box to truck mid-stream if the vessel arrives late?

What to send for a quote

Number of containers per month on the lane, and whether the volume is steady or seasonal
Container size and type, and whether any boxes are overweight for road
Commodity and declared value per container, so we can run the carrying-cost line
Destination address and receiving hours, so we can price the Chicago-area dray
Required delivery window, in days from vessel arrival
Whether you want a transload at the port, a straight rail move, or a mix
Steamship line and whether the boxes return to Seagirt or terminate in Chicago