CSX Transportation has asked for Wood County’s support if it applies for a federal grant to pay half the cost of a proposed $42 million expansion of the railroad’s intermodal terminal in North Baltimore, a railroad spokesman said Tuesday.

The project would extend the terminal’s container-handling area by 2,300 feet and include adding two wide-span cranes to the five erected there before the facility’s 2011 opening, spokesman Gary Sease said.

CSX spent $175 million to build the 500-acre terminal, which now employs about 300 people and handles about 2 million containerized freight shipments a year, transferring them either from one train to another or between trains and trucks.

The railroad’s proposal to seek a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to finance part of its expansion was brought before the county commissioners Tuesday morning. James Carter, the commissioners’ president, said a resolution supporting the application could be presented to the board next week.

Mr. Sease declined to say how many new jobs might be added if the proposal proceeds, or how close to capacity the terminal’s current operations are.

First Published May 15, 2013, 1:41 a.m.