BNSF Railway has announced plans to construct an integrated rail complex in Barstow, Southern California.
This facility will be the first of its type to be developed by a Class 1 railroad, and is set to create 20,000 direct and indirect jobs in the area.
The 4,500-acre Barstow International Gateway, expected to cost 1.5 billion USD (1.53bn EUR), will be made up of a rail yard, an intermodal facility and warehouses for transloading freight from international containers to domestic containers.
It will enable the direct transfer of containers from ships at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports to trains for transport through the Alameda Corridor onto the BNSF mainline to Barstow.
Once the containers reach the new facility, they will be processed using cargo-handling equipment powered by clean energy, and then staged and built into trains moving east via BNSF’s US network.
Westbound freight will similarly be processed to bring trains to California ports and other terminals more efficiently.
“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.
“This will play a critical role in improving fluidity throughout our rail network, moving containers off the ports quicker and facilitating improved efficiency at our existing intermodal hubs, including those in the Midwest and Texas.
“The facility will also have an important positive economic impact, including the creation of new, local railroad jobs.”
Earlier this year, BSNF also opened a new facility at the Port of Tacoma, Washington.
This intermodal rail hub will enable more than 50,000 annual container lifts in response to increased demand for intermodal rail freight in the Pacific Northwest, allowing more freight to be transported inland by rail.
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