California State Rail Plan 2005-06 to 2015-16

Chapter XV – Major Freight Issues
International container shipments have been growing rapidly to and from West
Coast ports over the last ten-year period, as illustrated by Figure 15B.
Figure 15B
Container 20 Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs)
Major Ports of the Continental U.S. 9
(In Millions)
Port 1995 2004 Change
Los Angeles 2.64 7.32 177%
Long Beach 2.84 5.78 103%
Oakland 1.56 2.04 65%
Tacoma 1.09 1.80 32%
Seattle 1.48 1.78 20%
California ports handle the majority of the West Coast marine container traffic.
Together, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach make up the third largest
container port facility in the world. Fifty percent of all the containers handled at
the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach go to U.S. destinations by rail. The vast
majority of these are bound for inland destination points such as Chicago and
Kansas City, illustrating the importance of the rail/steamship interface.
In order to facilitate further growth, the ports and railroads have been making
substantial investments to improve rail/ship interface. Recent planned
improvements include:
• On-dock facilities 10 in both the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
• The Alameda Corridor East project between downtown Los Angeles and
San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
• The Joint Intermodal Terminal at the Port of Oakland.
SHARED USE OF RIGHTS-OF-WAY
In many areas of the State, passenger services share rail rights-of-way (ROW)
with freight railroads. For both passenger and freight railroads sharing a ROW,
a primary issue is the capacity of the route to accommodate all train movements.
Before a freight railroad grants a passenger operator use of its facilities, the
railroad will require various capacity improvements to ensure the reliability of
9 American Association of Port Authorities, 2005
10 An on-dock rail facility refers to track and loading equipment inside a marine terminal to enable the movements of
containers between ships and trains without leaving the marine terminals.
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