Alameda Corridor

The corridor lets import containers leave the San Pedro Bay ports by rail without crossing city streets, which is a key reason so much intermodal cargo moves from Southern California to inland markets. It consolidated several slower rail lines into one grade-separated route, removing more than 200 street crossings where trains and traffic conflicted, and the trip takes about 45 minutes. The corridor is financed largely through fees charged on containers that use it. Importers routing through Los Angeles and Long Beach benefit when containers load onto trains at the docks and travel through the corridor, avoiding a drayage move to an off-dock rail yard.

• Intermodal FreightFreight moved by rail and truck in one box
• DrayageTrucking containers from port to warehouse
• TransloadingMoving goods from a container to a trailer

• Double-Stack Container Trains1984 · Trains carry containers stacked two high
• Burlington Northern Santa Fe Merger1995 · Two western railroads combine into BNSF
• Union Pacific-Southern Pacific Merger1996 · A rail merger sets off a western service crisis

1. Alameda Corridor freight rail expressway opens on time and on budget (Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority) acta.org
2. The Alameda Rail Corridor (The Geography of Transport Systems) transportgeography.org