Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
Wasn't there chatter about electrifying freight railroads, particularly the lines serving the Ports of LB/LA, in the LA basin and then constructing staging yards in the high desert where locomotives would be swapped for the journey eastward? Did I dream that? It seems like its been quite a while back. Maybe the Tier IV technology advanced to the point where the main concern of CO2 emissions had been satisfied. Even with Tier IV, electric would still be exponentially cleaner.
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The problem leaving the LA and LB ports with double stack trains is the vertical clearances of the tunnels getting to the high deserts. They were heightened for double stack containers, but not high enough for both double stack containers and catenary wires being strung above them.
Anyways, the backlog of freight entering and exiting these ports is not the train capacity or the truck capacity on the highways. It's how the ports operate; with double container stack limitations at the port, non automation equipment to please the unions, and union contracts limiting regular and shift pay to 20 hours a day. Time and a half overtime pay required for the remaining 4 hours a day, whether or not they are working less than 8 hours per day and less than 40 hours per week. The backup delays are at the the ports themselves, they are just not keeping up loading and alighting containers to or from the ships.