(The following editorial appeared on the Daily Breeze website on May 11.)
TORRANCE, Calif. — One of the best ways to decrease harbor congestion and air pollution is to use trains rather than trucks to move cargo. That is why the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) proposal to build a rail terminal a short hop from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles looks desirable.
BNSF officials want to construct an intermodal transfer facility, or ICTF, an industry term for a place where containers are taken off trucks and put on trains, on the L.A.-Long Beach border near Pacific Coast Highway and the Terminal Island Freeway.
Some Wilmington residents oppose the proposal due to concerns about noisy, polluting trucks making trips to the center. But an announcement made this week by the BNSF should relax some of the concerns about air quality and noise and, we hope, increase support for this necessary project.
The railroad said it would purchase 400 cleaner-burning diesel trucks that would run from the ports to the terminal and also require that other trucks meet stricter clean-air standards to use the ICTF. Newer trucks emit about 90 percent less particulate matter — a term for the tiny particles in air pollution — than many older rigs.
The cumulative traffic benefit — about 1 million fewer trucks on the road a year — should override most of the lingering concerns. Air pollution is something everyone in this region must live with, and with port traffic expected to grow exponentially, solutions need to be examined with a regional, rather than a block-by-block, perspective.
The Asian-made goods are going to keep coming, and so are the trucks and the trains. It’s going to take several smart projects like this to keep us all from choking on traffic and fumes.
Getting trucks off the freeways is a good way to meet these goals, though we acknowledge that it is far more expensive for those buying the goods to use rail and often makes poor business sense. However, increasing access to rail — like any other commodity — could reduce prices.
In addition to the trucks, the railroad plans to landscape the terminal, creating an “urban forest,” and build a sound wall. Those are solid overtures to its neighbors.
But even better is a commitment to give local residents priority in hiring for new jobs at the ICTF. Goods movement jobs pay well, and there is a dire need for reliable blue collar work around here.