California State Rail Plan 2005-06 to 2015-16

Chapter XVI – Short Line Analysis
Pacific Harbor Line with 36,005 cars, the California Northern Railroad with
30,627 cars, and Modesto & Empire Traction with 28,608 cars. These four lines
alone accounted for 80 percent of all reported short line movements.
Seven short line railroads reported having intermodal facilities, defined as:
Container on Flat Car (COFC), Trailer on Flat Car (TOFC), team tracks, or bulk
transfer facilities. Of the 19 short lines in the survey sample, 12 reported not
owning or operating any intermodal facilities.
COMMODITY MOVEMENTS
In 2003, the AAR 15 reported 6.1 million carloads of freight originating and
terminating in California, accounting for the movement of over 162 million tons of
commerce.
The reporting short lines handle over six percent of the number of annual cars and
nearly 16 percent of the total tonnage. The majority of all movements were
interstate in nature. Many of them were bridge movements originating and
terminating in other Pacific Rim countries and moving through California to and
from other U.S. inland or East/Gulf Coast points.
The reported commodity shipments via the short lines can be aggregated into
seven commodity categories:
• Agricultural Products – grains, beets, potatoes, etc.
• Automobiles.
• Chemical – petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG), fertilizer,
hazardous materials, etc.
• Food Products – processed foods, tomato paste, frozen foods, etc.
• Minerals – processed metals, minerals, cement, gypsum, aggregates, etc.
• TOFC or COFC mixed freight shipments.
• Wood Products – lumber, logs, paper, furniture, etc.
The number of carloads by commodity was used to estimate the statewide
short line commodity mix. The results are shown in the pie chart labeled
Figure 16B. Wood and food products each accounted for over 20 percent of the
movements.
15 American Association of Railroads, 2001 Traffic Report for California.
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