New Rail Facility Coming to Barstow, CA

BNSF Railway’s Barstow International Gateway will create economic and environmental benefits.

By Bill Lewis on September 21, 2023

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If you made a list of the widespread benefits of BNSF Railway’s Barstow International Gateway, it would be hard to decide where to start.

Two numbers stand out: $1.5 billion and 20,000.

The state-of-the-art master-planned rail facility represents an investment of more than $1.5 billion by BNSF.

The 20,000 direct and indirect jobs it will create almost equal Barstow’s total population of 25,231.

The environmental and economic benefits will extend far beyond Barstow. The facility will improve the region’s air quality and unravel supply chain knots across the country by allowing goods to be shipped efficiently by train instead of trucks.

“This is a great thing for Barstow, the high desert and the country as a whole,” says Willie A. Hopkins Jr., Barstow’s city manager.

BNSF’s Barstow International Gateway is the first facility of its kind to be developed by a Class I railroad. It will be an approximately 4,500-acre integrated rail facility consisting of a rail yard, an intermodal facility and warehouses for transloading freight from international containers to domestic containers.

Clean Energy

The facility will allow the direct transfer of containers from ships at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to trains going to Barstow. Then the Barstow International Gateway will process them using clean-energy powered cargo-handling equipment. Trains will move the cargo instead of trucks.

“By allowing for more efficient transfer of cargo directly between ships and rail, the Barstow International Gateway will maximize rail and distribution efficiency regionally and across the U.S. supply chain and reduce truck traffic and freeway congestion in the Los Angeles Basin and the Inland Empire,” says Katie Farmer, president and CEO of BNSF.

“This will play a critical role in improving fluidity throughout our rail network, moving containers off the ports quicker and facilitating improved efficiency at our existing intermodal hubs, including those in the Midwest and Texas. The facility will also have an important positive economic impact, including the creation of new local railroad jobs,” Farmer says.

Materials and products are expected to move across the country to consumers, businesses and manufacturers with more speed and reliability. BNSF operates about 32,500 route miles of track in 28 states and operates in three Canadian provinces. The railroad is one of the top transporters of consumer goods, grain and agricultural products, low-sulfur coal and industrial goods, such as petroleum, chemicals, housing materials, food and beverages.

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Regional Benefits

“This project takes a significant amount of traffic off the Interstate 15 corridor. Now, those containers will be brought up to Barstow via rail. It takes a significant amount of truck traffic off the roads,” Hopkins says.

The economic benefits of the Barstow International Gateway will be felt across the region, he says.

“Barstow has over 25,000 people, and this project is going to bring in excess of 20,000 direct and indirect jobs,” Hopkins says.

“You’ll need new houses, new grocery stores. There will be as many jobs as there are residents in Barstow,” he says.

San Bernardino County, CA, which includes the Victor Valley, plays a critical role in supporting the movement of goods to the rest of the country.

“The Barstow International Gateway will be essential for modeling new and efficient ways to address supply chain issues that have impacted everyone over the past several years,” says Dawn Rowe, San Bernardino County supervisor for the Third District.

Planning for the Barstow International Gateway began when supply chain issues arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, “This is something we’ve worked on for more than two years,” Hopkins says. “This facility will bring thousands of jobs to Barstow, while increasing equity, opportunity and the economic competitiveness of the High Desert. BNSF has been an important part of our city since its inception, and on this 75th anniversary, we are proud to partner with them to ensure our success in the future.”