Development: Today & Tomorrow

Accommodating the projected freight demand will be a major challenge. According to an American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recent report, "Transportation Reboot," by 2020, trucks will move three billion more tons of freight nationwide than they haul today. This is another 1.8 million trucks on the road. And by 2035, add another truck for every two trucks on the road today.¹ Given that over 4.3 million trucks² carrying freight that could be converted to intermodal traveled roadways parallel to the TransCon in 2008, more needs to be done to take advantage of rail. Following are projects proposed in partnership with our public partners who recognize the importance of the project to their state, region or community.

• Kansas City Intermodal Facility – In partnership with the State of Kansas, BNSF will construct the Kansas City Intermodal Facility – a new 443-acre $250 million intermodal facility located in Edgerton, Kansas. By increasing rail intermodal capacity in the Kansas City area, this Project will avoid diversion of traffic to long haul trucking that otherwise would move by rail. This enhancement will reduce highway congestion, improving quality of life and livability of citizens along the major truck routes. This facility, along with the separate and independently-developed logistics park, has the potential to create 13,000 jobs and remove an average of 3,000 long-haul trucks per day from highways.
• California Double-Tracking – In partnership with the State of California, BNSF plans to construct multiple double tracking segments in the Tehachapi Mountains starting in 2012. This project will improve capacity over the Tehachapis by more than 70%, providing the capacity to remove over 1.3 million trucks from congested highways saving over 15 million gallons of fuel and avoiding 170,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.
• At-Grade Rail Connection in Richmond, CA – To remove intermodal rail traffic from the center of the City of Richmond, California, the State of California, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and BNSF, are partnering to construct the Richmond Rail Connector. This $22 million project will construct an at-grade connection track which will provide a more direct route for BNSF’s trains to and from the Port of Oakland, improving freight and passenger rail reliability while removing rail traffic from nine grade crossings in the city of Richmond.
• Abo Canyon – Started in 2007, this $90 million double tracking project in New Mexico is expected to be completed in 2011. The addition of 5 miles of double track is particularly challenging by the canyon’s curves, grades and limited access. With the completion of the Abo Canyon project, only 38 miles remain for the TransCon’s primary route between Los Angeles and Chicago to be completely double-tracked.
• Colton Crossing – The State of California and the U.S. Department of Transportation (TIGER grant) are partnering with Union Pacific and BNSF to construct the $198 million Colton Crossing grade separation to elevate Union Pacific's mainline tracks over BNSF's. The project would eliminate train delays created by conflicting train movements, providing for more efficient and reliable freight and passenger train service,
• Southern California International Gateway (SCIG) – Another planned project is SCIG located near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. SCIG will improve the efficiency of cargo transfer from ports to customers and allow shippers to take advantage of more efficient truck-rail transportation. SCIG will eliminate millions of truck miles annually from Interstate 710 and other local freeways in Southern California, reducing congestion and improving traffic safety.
• Hobart Truck Efficiency Improvement Project – The proposed $35 million Hobart Truck Efficiency Improvement Project would improve productivity by 50% for more than one million owner/operator dray trucks per year serving Hobart Intermodal Facility by constructing a truck overpass and install an auto gate system. The project would reduce over 860,000 hours of dray truck idling and delays annually and eliminate more than 580,000 trucks from adjacent city streets per year.
• Grade Crossing Closures – BNSF, as the industry leader, has closed over 5,000 crossings to date system-wide.  Included in that total are over 940 crossings closed on the TransCon.  To learn more about grade crossing safety, visit BNSF.com.

¹ AASHTO http://expandingcapacity.transportation.org/unlocking_freight/index.html

² 2008 IHS-GI and Transearch Data