Alameda Corridor Transit Authority Corridor logo
The Alameda Corridor is a 20 mile (32 km) freight rail "expressway"[1] owned by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (AAR reporting marks ATAX), connecting the national rail system near downtown Los Angeles, California to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach[1], running parallel to Alameda Street.
Description
The project is notable for its "Mid-Corridor Trench", a below-ground, triple-tracked rail line that is 10 miles (16 km) long, 33 feet (10 m) deep and 50 feet wide (15 m),[2] shared by both the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad[1] via trackage rights. The Alameda Corridor allows trains to bypass 90 miles (145 km) of early 20th century branch lines and the Santa Fe's historic Harbor Subdivision along a high-speed grade-separated corridor (mainly built on the alignment of a former UP line), avoiding more than 200 at-grade railroad crossings where cars and trucks previously had to wait for long freight trains to slowly pass.[3] Many of those same rail lines were inadequately protected with little more than "wigwag" crossing signals dating from the original construction of the lines. One important use of the corridor is to take cargo containers to the ports. The corridor has a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour (64 km/h).
History
The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles completed the purchase of Southern Pacific's Alameda Corridor line for $235 million in December 1994. The line went into operation April 15, 2002 and reached a peak of 60 train movements per day in October 2006.[4] It is credited with significantly relieving congestion on the Long Beach Freeway (I-710) and elsewhere in the region. During calendar year 2007, the line carried 17,824 trains carrying 4.7 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers.[4]
Future Development
Electrification
Caltrans, the Port of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority have publicly announced plans to electrify the corridor, in order to reduce the troublingly high particulate emissions along the route.citation needed
Alameda Corridor East
The Alameda Corridor East Project, currently under construction will grade separate many of the crossings along Union Pacific Railroad's Alhambra Subdivision and the Los Angeles Subdivision. Many of these crossings, which are currently at grade, tie up traffic on north-south streets for long periods multiple times a day as the long fright trains pass on their way to and from the massive UP yards in Vernon and Commerce.
Included as part of the Alameda Corridor East project is the half-billion dollar San Gabriel Trench, which will submerge the track between Ramona street and San Gabriel Boulevard in the city of San Gabriel.[5] This project is in the design phase with a large portion of its construction funds secured.
Along with federal fund matching, the project would also be funded in part by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
References
- ^ a b c Redden, J. W. & Selig, E. T.; Zaremsbki, A. M. (2002), "Stiff track modulus considerations", RT&S: Railway Track & Structures 98(2): 25–30
- ^ Fortner, Brian (2002), "The Train Lane", Civil Engineering 72(9): 52–61
- ^ Cerny, L. T. (2002), "Alameda corridor opens to traffic in L.A.", RT&S: Railway Track & Structures 98(5): 32
- ^ a b "Corridor Statistics". Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority. Retrieved on 2008-07-23.
- ^ "State OKs funds for San Gabriel crossing". Pasadena Star News (2008-04-10).
External links
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