BNSF To Build $1.5 Billion Integrated Rail Complex in Barstow, Calif.

Abstract

Officials say the master-planned project will be the first of its kind to be developed by a Class 1 railroad.Located about 130 miles from the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the Barstow International Gateway will sit on more than 4,500 acres just west of Barstow, where BNSF has operated an existing rail yard for more than 140 years. The integrated rail facility will allow the direct transfer of containers from ships at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to trains for transport through the Alameda Corridor onto the BNSF mainline up to Barstow. BNSF says the project will improve fluidity throughout BNSF's rail network, move containers out of the ports quicker, and facilitate improved efficiency in operations at existing intermodal hubs, including those in the Midwest and Texas. Currently, most international cargo at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach arrives in standard 40-ft containers that are then trucked from the ports to warehouses in Los Angeles or the Inland Empire. Once the containers arrive at the warehouses, they are unloaded, sorted, and re-loaded onto 53-ft domestic containers that are either transported by truck to a rail yard in Los Angeles, where they are transferred onto trains, or are simply trucked across the country. The project will not require any physical modifications to existing facilities at the Port of Los Angeles or the Port of Long Beach. BNSF, which plans to develop the project privately, says it is working with the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, along with the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and the City of Barstow.