BNSF's $4B Barstow Hub Clears Local Vote

Local Approval Moves BIG Forward

Barstow City Council approved BNSF Railway's proposed Barstow International Gateway, clearing a local hurdle for a freight project designed around Southern California port cargo. The plan calls for a 4,500-acre rail, intermodal, and transload complex west of Barstow.

The facility would move containers from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach through the Alameda Corridor and onto BNSF's mainline to Barstow, where international boxes could be processed and rebuilt into eastbound domestic loads. FreightWaves reported that the site is designed to support about 60 trains in the high desert.

Truck Miles Are The Selling Point

BNSF is pitching the project as a way to shift more port freight off highways and onto rail. The railroad says the new model could eliminate about 205 million truck miles in 2028, rising to 269 million in 2033 and 312 million in 2048.

The plan still carries local questions. Supporters point to port fluidity, jobs, and reduced congestion in the Los Angeles Basin and Inland Empire. Critics have raised environmental, traffic, and land-use concerns around the scale of the operation.

What Fleets Should Watch

For drayage, intermodal, and long-haul fleets, the project matters because it could change where port freight is sorted and handed off. If BNSF can move more container work inland without creating new bottlenecks, Southern California capacity planning gets a different map.