en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Barstow City Council has officially approved the Barstow International Gateway (BIG) project, a comprehensive rail hub in California privately funded by freight railway operator BNSF Railway with an investment of approximately $4 billion.
Located on a 4,500-acre (1,821-hectare) site west of Barstow, the facility will include rail yards, intermodal terminals, and cargo transshipment warehouses. The goal is to achieve faster and more sustainable transfer of international maritime containers to domestic containers by optimizing logistics processes. Containers arriving at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will be transported directly by rail to Barstow, where they will be sorted and redistributed across BNSF's national rail network.
Katie Farmer, President and CEO of BNSF Railway, stated that this $4 billion private investment will strengthen the entire supply chain, alleviate port congestion, and provide greater flexibility for customers.
The rail hub will transform freight transportation patterns in California by shifting container sorting and transshipment operations from congested port areas to inland Barstow, promoting a significant transfer of freight from road to rail. It is estimated that this shift will reduce truck mileage by 330 million kilometers (205 million miles) in 2028, 433 million kilometers (269 million miles) in 2033, and 502 million kilometers (312 million miles) in 2048, thereby reducing road congestion, emissions, and traffic pressure on urban communities near the ports. BNSF plans to use zero-emission freight handling equipment, including electric cranes, electric forklifts, and other low-emission machinery, and has signed agreements with environmental agencies to test and implement additional emission reduction technologies.
The project is expected to create approximately 62,000 construction jobs and 15,000 permanent facility operation positions. Over the first twenty years of operation, the hub is projected to generate about 5,400 direct jobs, $938 million in total revenue, and contribute $2.9 billion in economic benefits to the city of Barstow. In addition to rail infrastructure, the project includes significant local infrastructure upgrades, such as flood mitigation projects, replacement of the Mojave River Hinckley Road Bridge, and road network improvements.
The project recently received special certification from California Governor Gavin Newsom under SB 149, a law aimed at accelerating the construction of critical infrastructure projects. The Barstow International Gateway is the first transportation project to receive this designation and is one of only ten local and regional projects in California to obtain such recognition.
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