California State Rail Plan 2007-08 to 2017-18

Chapter XV – System OverviewCHAPTER XVSYSTEM OVERVIEWNETWORK DESCRIPTIONCalifornia is an important ingredient in the national freight rail system. In 2005,California railroads operated over 7335 miles of track, carried 7,124,010 carloadsof freight with a weight totaling over 173 million tons. They employed more than10,000 workers, who had an average compensation of over $93,000. As well asproviding access points for international imports and exports California is a largefreight rail market itself. Freight traffic consisted of a mosaic of goods, andincluded a range of mixed freight, agricultural and food products chemicals metal,building materials and timber.General information about this network, and the commodities that are moved, areshown in the information sheets following.The two Class 1 railroads in California (those having revenues of at least$319.3 million) are the BNSF Railway (BNSF) and the Union Pacific (UP). Thesetwo roads have extensive rail networks connecting California with the rest of thenation, particularly corridors to the Southwest, Midwest and Northwest. Includingtrackage rights, these two railroads operate over a total of 5,488 miles in the State.They are complemented by service on a number of other railroads. These includeone regional railroad, which serves Oregon as well as a small segment in northernCalifornia (52 miles), 15 short line railroads that operate over a total of1,285 miles of track, and 11 switching and terminal railroads operating over a totalof 510 miles of track.ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE TO THE STATERailroads provide service to California, but also play an extremely important rolein both the United States. and the global economy. As well as serving the rest ofthe nation with the important corridors of the Class 1 railroads, they serve theimport and export markets for a large number of Pacific Rim countries,particularly the booming economies of East and Southeast Asia. Approximately45 percent of intermodal traffic entering or leaving the U.S. passes throughCalifornia ports, especially the port complexes of Los Angeles/Long Beach andOakland in Northern California. Indeed, when considering the container volumethroughput of major international container ports, when combined the containervolume of Los Angeles/Long Beach would rank fifth among internationalcontainer ports and standing alone they rank 10 and 11.213