Norfolk Southern has launched a daily Charleston-Huntsville intermodal service. The North Alabama destination did not appear in the Port of Charleston’s most recent published rail timetable.

Container cranes and stacked cargo at the Port of Charleston terminal
An archive photo from August 2019 shows container cranes and stacked cargo at the Port of Charleston. Photo: English Hurteau / SC Ports.

South Carolina Ports Authority announced the lane on 11 September 2026. It takes effect immediately. According to the authority, daily direct service extends the port’s reach into the North Alabama and Middle Tennessee markets. It also gives importers and exporters another rail option across the Southeast. SC Ports President and CEO Micah Mallace said the lane gives shippers “greater flexibility and speed to market at the right cost.”

What Charleston listed before

The port’s own intermodal timetable was updated on 22 January 2026. It shows four Norfolk Southern destinations for import containers moving inland from Charleston. They are Austell in Georgia, Charlotte in North Carolina, Greer in South Carolina and Memphis in Tennessee. Published fastest transit ranges from one day to Greer up to five days to Memphis. Huntsville appears in neither the import nor the export table.

Norfolk Southern lanes for import containers moving inland from Charleston, as published by South Carolina Ports Authority in its rail timetable of 22 January 2026. Transit is shown in calendar days, fastest published service.
Destination Fastest published transit In the 22 January 2026 timetable
Greer, South Carolina 1 day Yes
Austell, Georgia 2 days Yes
Charlotte, North Carolina 3 days Yes
Memphis, Tennessee 5 days Yes
Huntsville, Alabama Not published No

Before the new lane, four inland destinations carried a published Norfolk Southern transit from Charleston, from one day to five. Source: South Carolina Ports Authority, rail transit timetable, updated 22 January 2026.

However, Huntsville was not absent from the port’s broader marketing. Its rail connections page names Huntsville among the inland hubs reachable from Charleston. The new announcement is more specific: it confirms daily direct Norfolk Southern service between Charleston and Huntsville, effective immediately.

Two 2026 launches cited by Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern published an update on its intermodal network on 10 September. It identifies the route as bidirectional international service between North Alabama and Charleston. The railroad also lists a bidirectional domestic Cincinnati-Atlanta service among the intermodal services it has launched this year. In the same update, Norfolk Southern reported intermodal volumes up 5% in the second quarter of 2026. Asset utilisation is about 15% better than in 2023. The update further names the Gainesville Inland Port in Georgia and the Southern Connector into the Navy Base Intermodal Facility in Charleston.

Alabama has been busy for the railroad in another direction as well. On 1 September Norfolk Southern said it had completed a package of investments on its 3B Corridor. That corridor links northern and central Alabama with the Port of Mobile. The work started in 2024 and covered siding extensions and centralised traffic control in three counties. Neither announcement links the corridor programme to the Charleston-Huntsville service, although they were published ten days apart.

The market at the Alabama end

Huntsville handles containers through the International Intermodal Center. A five-mile spur links the inland port to the Norfolk Southern main line. Rail lifts there reached 33,745 in 2024, the best result since 2008, and the centre passed its cumulative millionth lift in March 2025. The port’s own cargo data then show 33,309 lifts in 2025. They also show fewer lifts in each of the first five months of 2026 than in the same months of 2025. Its rail page, meanwhile, advertises direct Norfolk Southern service to and from Charleston and Savannah.

Annual rail lifts at the International Intermodal Center, Port of Huntsville, calendar years 2022 to 2025, as reported by the port.
Year Rail lifts Change on the previous year
2022 22,210 Not stated by the port
2023 27,597 Up 24%
2024 33,745 Up 22.3%
2025 33,309 Down 1.3%

Rail lifts rose by 24% in 2023 and another 22.3% in 2024, before easing by 1.3% to 33,309 in 2025. The 2024 total remained the strongest result since 2008. Sources: Port of Huntsville, historical rail-lift data, results for 2024, and results for 2023.

What Charleston has not published

The SC Ports announcement and Norfolk Southern’s 10 September network update did not state a transit time or a route-specific cut-off time for the new lane. The current timetable linked from the SC Ports rail-connections page is still dated 22 January 2026 and contains no Huntsville entry. That gap matters for a port that moves 25% of its volume by rail.

SC Ports says construction of the 118-acre Navy Base Intermodal Facility is nearly complete, while design of its southern rail access continues. The dual-served yard is designed for one million rail lifts per year and will use six electric rail-mounted gantry cranes.

Norfolk Southern is meanwhile working under regulatory review of its proposed combination with Union Pacific. The Surface Transportation Board lifted the abeyance on the case in August 2026 and set a procedural schedule. Notices of intent to participate are due by 30 September 2026. Until any decision, the railroad still runs its own network and sells its own service. The Huntsville lane is part of that offer.