"Sheesh! Typical of the Idaho Statesman, they ignore the fact that Lewiston Idaho has had an intermodal port for the last 35 years."

Well, Idaho and North Idaho are two different states dontcha know?

Actually, the agricultural economy in S. Idaho is still going pretty strong. And they ship a lot of goods. UP did have an intermodal facility (TOFC) in Nampa for many years, until that type of shipping dried up. Inbound shipments of consumer goods into Boise are up too, due mainly to the population increase in the last 10-15 years. The facility will have a large area to draw from, so it just might work.

As to "why didn't UP do it"....fuggedaboutit. UP gave up on local service to the valley years ago - all they want to do is run trains through. Abandoned all the branch lines they could, spun off the others. That being said, they've been pretty good about providing service to the spinoffs at Nampa (IN&PRR, now BVRR) and Ontario OR (EORR). EORR is kind of shaky, but IN&P did pretty well with loose-car railroading for a lot of years and sold out to BVRR at a profit.

Maybe Watco's actually doing something right, for a change. Now if they could just lose that ridiculous bronco-themed locomotive paint scheme..........as you may have guessed, I'm one of the few people still unimpressed with Boise State U. Oh, they play pretty good football, but they haven't been guilty of education for at least thirty years......
J