BNSF Railway has unveiled its plans to invest more than US$1.5 billion to construct a new rail facility in Southern California and the first being developed by a Class 1 railroad.
The Barstow International Gateway will be an approximately 4,500-acre new integrated rail facility on the west side of Barstow, consisting of a rail yard, intermodal facility and warehouses for transloading freight from international containers to domestic ones.
In addition, the facility is expected to allow the direct transfer of boxes 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’s planned Barstow International Gateway will improve cargo velocity through our port and reduce truck traffic on our freeways,” said Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka, while Port of Long Beach counterpart, Mario Cordero, stated, “This project will help improve supply chain fluidity, reduce environmental impacts and enhance the competitiveness of California and the nation’s largest port complex.”
BNSF said that once the containers reach the Barstow International Gateway, they will be processed at the facility using clean-energy powered cargo-handling equipment, and then staged and built into trains moving east via BNSF’s network across the nation. Westbound freight will similarly be processed at the facility to more efficiently bring trains to the ports and other California terminals, according to the company.
“By allowing for more efficient transfer of cargo directly between ships and rail, the Barstow International Gateway will maximise rail and distribution efficiency regionally and across the US supply chain and reduce truck traffic and freeway congestion in the Los Angeles Basin and the Inland Empire,” commented Katie Farmer, president and CEO of BNSF, who went on to point out that this is expected to improve fluidity throughout BNSF’s rail network, moving containers off the ports quicker, and facilitating improved efficiency at the company’s existing intermodal hubs, including those in the Midwest and Texas.
