Freight Rail

Overview

California is a key link in the national freight rail system.  In 2009, California railroads operated over 6,842 miles of track and carried 6,882,659 carloads of freight with a weight totaling over 164 million tons.  Rail intermodal, the long-haul movement of shipping containers or truck trailers by rail, is the fastest-growing major segment of the United States freight railroad industry.  Intermodal allows railroads, ocean carriers, trucking companies, and intermodal customers to take advantage of the best attributes of different transportation modes to yield a highly efficient and cost-effective overall freight movement.  (Association of American Railroads, 2011)

Class I railroads – the designation for the major freight rail carriers – are represented in California by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) and the Union Pacific Railroad (UP).  These two railroads have extensive rail networks connecting California with the rest of the nation, particularly corridors to the Southwest, Midwest, and Northwest.  Including rights obtained by one railroad to operate its trains over another railroad's tracks (trackage rights), these two railroads operate over a total of 5,305 miles in the State.  In addition to these major carriers, local markets in California may be served by smaller rail freight networks known as “short line railroads,” which serve a particular market or which provide feeder service to the national freight rail network represented by the UP and the BNSF.

Freight Rail Resources

Federal Partner

• U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)

California’s Class I Railroads

• BNSF Railway
• Union Pacific

California Short Line Railroads

• American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association
• California Short Line Railroad Association

Rail Associations

• American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) – Standing Committee on Rail Transportation (SCORT)
• Association of American Railroads (AAR) and the AAR California Fact Sheet

 

California State Rail Plan, Fact Sheet,
and Studies

The Department is required, under Section 14036 of California Government Code, to prepare a ten-year State Rail Plan (Plan) which is updated biennially. More information is available at California State Rail Plan. The links below provide the existing State Rail Plan, a Freight Element fact sheet and two pertinent studies.

• California State Rail Plan (CSRP) – 2007-08 to 2017-18
  
• CSRP Freight Element Fact Sheet
• Rail Preservation Preliminary Investigation, Caltrans Division of Research and Innovation, produced by CTC and Associates LLC  (June 2011)
• Rail Right-of-Way and Abandoned Corridors Study (March 2005). Prepared for Caltrans by Nelson/Nygaard.

Other Freight Rail Resources

• California Air Resources Board’s Rail Yard Emission Reduction Program
• National Rail Freight Capacity and Investment Study (Cambridge Systematics, Inc., prepared for the Association of American Railroads, September 2007)
• Rail Freight Solutions to Roadway Congestion – Final Report and Guidebook (National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 586, Transportation Research Board, 2007)
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Locomotive Emission Regulations

Other State Rail Plans and Studies

• Note: Large PDFs - Please allow time to load.
• Arizona Rail Plan, March 2011
• DRAFT Colorado State Rail Plan, January 2012
• Indiana Rail Plan, July 2009
• North Dakota State Rail Plan, December 2007
• Oregon Rail Study, September 2010
• Pennsylvania State Rail Plan 2035, February 2010
• Texas Rail Plan, November 2010
• Washington State Freight Rail Study, July 2009

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