BNSF adding $80 million third track to Cajon Pass
Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad BNSF is chugging along on a project that could increase the capacity of a major Southern California rail bottleneck by 50 percent.
Construction on an $80 million 16-mile third track through the Cajon Pass began last month, and officials from the railroad expect work to be completed by the end of the year.
The Cajon Pass, which cuts through the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles at an elevation of 4,200 feet, is the main rail exit from the Los Angeles basin to the northern and eastern part of the state. BNSF has maintained two tracks through the 32-mile pass and Union Pacific another. The BNSF tracks were built in 1885 and 1913, with UP not building its track until the late 1960s.
The tracks handle upwards of 90 trains a day, most laden with cargo from the Southern California ports and reaching up to 8,000 feet in length. An Amtrak service on the route also adds to the traffic. With so many trains crowded on so few tracks, the pass had become a worrisome bottleneck for rail traffic planners.
When BNSF's additional track is completed, capacity through the pass should soar to nearly 150 trains a day, allowing the existing traffic to spread out and not slow down as they climb the 2 percent to 3 percent grades. While trains are sometimes seen creeping up the pass at 15 mph, the additional track should help the trains return to more optimal 30 mph.
In addition to the new track, BNSF will remove two tunnels along the route, one 400 feet and the other 500 feet, which date back to 1913 and according to the railroad are not up to modern standards. Instead of relaying the track around the old tunnels, construction crews will remove the surrounding part of the mountain to make a bed for the tracks.