A New Jersey company has relaunched its container barge service between Portland and New York City now that the Old Town pulp mill, its biggest customer, is up and running again.
Columbia Coastal Transport resumed its weekly barge service in Portland on Sunday, according to Marine Log, a publication that tracks the marine industry. The Liberty Corner, N.J.-based company suspended the Portland-New York service last July after Red Shield Environmental, its largest customer, ceased operations at its Old Town mill. At the time, the company said it would relaunch the service if the mill was revived.
The weekly barge service will provide work to 18 longshoremen in Portland, as well as offer an alternative means of transporting products for other Maine businesses, Jack Humeniuk, a business agent for the local longshoremens’ union, told the Portland Press Herald.
