Summery of the Alamada Corridor $2.4 billion project:

1. Alamada Corridor received $2.4 billion investment for heavy trains from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California

2. One quarter of all products arriving in the US moves through the ports of Long Beach and Los Angles, among the top 20 busiest container ports in the world.

3. The region is served by two major rail operators, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific. BNSF has a 33,000 mile network, and is the second largest rail carrier in the US, behind CSX Transportation.

4. Both companies have faced considerable obstacles of four single-track routes into the ports area, which involve trains up to 2.5 km long having to negotiate up to 200 level crossings that are strung along the four lines, necessitating a maximum speed of 32 mph.

5. Up to 35 trains per day have had to thread their way through the streets of LA at speeds of between 10 and 20mph

6. The four existing routes are replaced by a single consolidated, grade-separated 32km (20 mile) line, connecting with the existing rail network at Redondo Junction, near where the present route crosses the Los Angeles River.

7. Promoters hope the line will handle 100 trains a day by 2020, significantly reducing the number of road freight movements a day into the area – which stood at 20,000 per day before the new line. Average speed of freight trains is expected to double to 35–40mph, and during 2007 about 18,000 trains used the route with, on average, 50 running every day.

8. By 2007, Alameda Corridor had carried 18,000 trains at an average of nearly 50 trains per day. There is, however, still some way to go before the target of 100 trains per day is reached.

9. In April 2008, the Alameda Corridor reached an important milestone when the 100,000th train to use the connection was recorded.