A new freight rail terminal in Gainesville is set to open May 4, offering a direct connection to the Port of Savannah that officials say will pull tens of thousands of trucks off metro Atlanta highways every year.
What’s Happening: The Gainesville Inland Port is a $134 million facility built on 104 acres. It will open with 9,000 feet of working rail track, expandable to 18,000 feet at full build-out. It will run intermodal rail service five days a week between Gainesville and Savannah via Norfolk Southern Railway. At full build-out, it can handle 200,000 container moves per year.
What’s Important: In its first year alone, the port is projected to eliminate 26,000 truck roundtrips, or 52,000 individual trips, from Georgia highways. The I-85 and I-985 corridors leading into Atlanta are the primary targets. The rail route replaces a roughly 600-mile roundtrip truck haul between North Georgia and the coast.
Who It Serves: More than 330 regional manufacturers and exporters are expected to use the terminal. The industries it is primarily built to serve are poultry, heavy equipment, and forest products.
Local Road Work: Before the terminal opens, Hall County completed $4.8 million in nearby road improvements in late summer 2025. White Sulphur Road was rerouted and Cagle Road was resurfaced to handle traffic around the facility.
Where Things Stand: Construction hit 95% completion in January. Seven all-electric cranes used to lift and move shipping containers were commissioned in February, and the facility has been connected to permanent electrical power.
By the Numbers: Moving freight from diesel trucks to rail is projected to cut carbon emissions significantly in the port’s first year of operation.
The Path Forward: The port opens in less than a month. How much highway congestion it actually reduces will depend on how many regional shippers choose to move their freight by rail rather than truck.
