Barstow International Gateway Project

Project Updates

October 2024

On October 3, BNSF Railway partnered with the City of Barstow to provide updates on the Barstow International Gateway (BIG) project and other initiatives aimed at fostering growth and opportunities in the area. Interim City Manager Andrew Espinoza outlined the city’s General Plan update, while BNSF emphasized the transformative potential of the BIG project, which…

Strengthening local economies by creating thousands of jobs, enhancing and elevating the state’s supply chain ecosystem, and reducing traffic-related impacts on Southern California roadways.

Supporters

Trelynd Bradley

Deputy Director of Sustainable Freight and Supply Chain Development

GO-Biz

“The significance of BNSF’s investment to improve the supply chain here in California cannot be overstated. Rail plays a critical role in moving goods safely and efficiently, while reducing emissions due to congestion in many of our high-traffic corridors. Projects like BNSF’s will work to strengthen our inland local economies, such as that of Barstow in San Bernardino County. We look forward to continuing to work with projects like these, as well as others, to drive transformative investments that will enhance and elevate California’s supply chain ecosystem for a more efficient and resilient tomorrow.”

Gene Seroka

Executive Director

Port of Los Angeles

“BNSF’s planned Barstow International Gateway will improve cargo velocity through our port and reduce truck traffic on our freeways. This project will help ensure that goods moving through the San Pedro Bay will get to consumers, businesses, and manufacturers with speed and reliability.”

Mario Cordero

Executive Director

Port of Long Beach

“The Port of Long Beach welcomes BNSF’s planned Barstow International Gateway in the High Desert. This project will help improve supply chain fluidity, reduce environmental impacts, and enhance the competitiveness of California and the nation’s largest port complex.”

Dawn Rowe

3rd District Supervisor

San Bernardino County

“The County of San Bernardino plays a critical role in supporting the movement of goods to the rest of the country. Barstow International Gateway will be essential for modeling new and efficient ways to address supply chain issues that have impacted everyone over the past several years.”

Project Overview

BNSF Railway plans to invest more than $1.5 billion to construct a state-of-the-art master-planned rail facility in Southern California—and the first being developed by a Class 1 railroad. The Barstow International Gateway will be an approximately 4,500-acre new integrated rail facility on the west side of Barstow, consisting of a rail yard, intermodal facility and warehouses for transloading freight from international containers to domestic containers.

The facility will allow the direct transfer of containers from ships at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to trains for transport through the Alameda Corridor onto the BNSF mainline up to Barstow.

Once the containers reach the Barstow International Gateway, they will be processed at the facility using cargo-handling equipment powered by clean energy, and then staged and built into trains moving east via BNSF’s network across the nation. Westbound freight will similarly be processed at the facility to more efficiently bring trains to the ports and other California terminals.

KEY BENEFITS

Economy

Will bring thousands of direct and indirect jobs to High Desert communities
Will keep the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach competitive
Will support a robust, reliable, and efficient supply chain

Supply Chain

Will allow for more efficient transfer of cargo directly between ships and rail and maximize rail and distribution efficiency regionally and across the U.S. supply chain
Will improve fluidity throughout BNSF’s rail network, moving containers off the ports more quickly and facilitating improved efficiency in operations at existing intermodal hubs, including in the Midwest and Texas

Environment

Will significantly reduce port and highway congestion
Will maximize rail and distribution efficiency regionally and across the U.S. supply chain and reduce truck traffic and freeway congestion in the Los Angeles Basin and the Inland Empire by allowing for more efficient transfer of cargo directly between ships and rail

Low Community Impacts

Will minimize potential community impacts in Barstow since the facility will be located near primarily undeveloped land that’s not adjacent to urbanized areas
Will move freight off the roads and onto rails, alleviating traffic congestion on Southern California roadways and freeways and reducing the costs taxpayers incur for road maintenance

THE NEED

Currently, most international cargo at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach arrives in 40-foot containers that are then trucked from the ports to warehouses in Los Angeles or the Inland Empire. Once the containers arrive at the warehouses, they are unloaded, sorted, and reloaded onto 53-foot domestic containers that are either transported by truck to a rail yard in Los Angeles, where they are transferred onto trains or simply trucked across the country. This process creates inefficiencies and unnecessary truck trips within the Los Angeles Basin and Inland Empire that can impact supply chain distribution, the environment, and communities surrounding ports and warehouses.

The Barstow International Gateway will allow cargo to be transported by rail directly from the ports through the Alameda Corridor to Barstow and processed efficiently between the intermodal rail facility and the on-site transload warehouse facilities, without generating additional on-road truck trips. The transload warehouses will expedite repackaging and processing of goods into domestic containers for further transport via rail across the country.