(The following story by Ryan Huff appeared at InsideBayArea.com on December 6.)
OAKLAND, Calif. — Eighty trains move through West Contra Costa County on a typical day, halting car traffic and spewing diesel emissions. And under a plan by the Port of Oakland, a dozen more locomotives — some pulling more than a mile’s worth of freight cars — will run right through neighborhoods in Richmond and San Pablo.
While building more rail lines and increasing the length of trains would cut down on congestion at the nation’s fourth busiest container port, neighborhoods along the tracks would pay a price.
“A lot of people would be really unhappy,” said Sandi Genser-Maack, president of the Richmond Neighborhood Coordinating Council. “This is something that will enable (the port) to do business, but we would feel the effects. The trains take a lot of time crossing now; this would make it even worse.”
The $300 million project is far from a done deal. In January, the port plans to ask the state for a share of the $20 billion bond measure approved by voters last year for infrastructure improvements. If approved, construction could be three to five years away as the project goes through extensive environmental evaluations.
The port is looking to improve a railroad connection between two freight companies — Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe — in Richmond. Three areas the port is considering are the northern tip of the Iron Triangle, west of the Richmond Country Club or near the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline.
The port would also like to add two tracks from Oakland to that new connection.
Expanded rail service is necessary to keep up with trading demand as the port expects to double its volume by 2020, said Jon Amdur, the port’s manager of the maritime capital improvement program.
“We expect a large amount of new cargo from Asia and we need to get it out of the Bay Area and to the rest of the United States,” Amdur said.
At the same time, he said, the port wants to find a way to do that without major community impacts.
Port representatives plan to start meeting with residents and local elected officials early next year.
“It’s pretty clear we don’t have carte blanche on this project,” he said.
Contra Costa Supervisor John Gioia of Richmond said such a project would need to offset community impacts, such as requiring trains to use cleaner-burning fuel and installing overpasses that would not block traffic.
Gioia knows the impacts firsthand — he crosses railroad tracks leaving his neighborhood and said at times he waits 20 minutes for trains to pass.
“For years the East Bay has been in dire need of expanded rail capacity for freight and passengers,” he said. “But the issue here is this: How do we support a worthy project in a way that does not cause local communities to take on an unfair burden?”
Who decides the answer to that question is perhaps the greatest mystery. The Port of Oakland is leading the project, but the major improvements are proposed in Contra Costa County. Still up in the air is who would lead an environmental impact report and make sure that affected residents’ needs are met.
“It’s a very unusual situation,” said John Greitzer, a county senior transportation planner. “There’s an open ques tion of who’s in charge here.”
Amdur said the port would like to build grade crossings, but can’t come close to covering every intersection at $30 million to $50 million apiece.
“We’ll make sure to have a few around to keep the flow of traffic going through major thoroughfares,” he said.
County supervisors, concerned about how the project might affect West County residents, sent a letter Tuesday to port President Anthony A. Batarse Jr. outlining their suggestions. They include keeping neighborhoods informed, building grade separations and asking local refineries how the project would affect their operations.
Another chief concern is cutting down the diesel particulate released from trains. Compared to the rest of the county, Western Contra Costa has a significantly higher rate of childhood asthma and other respiratory ailments due in part to diesel emissions from freight trains, according to the county health department.
“We need to make sure we don’t have local communities suffering at the expense of improving the state and nation,” Gioia said.