CommentsPORTS BACKLOGGED - The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are clogged.
Massive cargo ships filled with containers of goods for U.S consumers continue to catch rays while anchored off the SoCal coast. With delays of weeks the goods sit on the armada of trade, ships with Christmas shopping bobbing in the Pacific waters.
The reasons are many: pent up U.S. consumer demand after the COVID lockdown; the two ports open for only banker hours; a shortage of containers; a shortage of truck drivers to move the goods to at least the massive warehouses in Eastern Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, or to the rest of the country.
The ports, after prodding from President Biden, will go to a 24/7 schedule which will lead to a quicker emptying of the massive armada of massive cargo ships. But there remains the issues of moving those containers, and the issues of insufficient truck drivers to move the containers.
Before the dismantling of the extensive rail system in Southern California in the 1950-60s, in addition to the many passenger trains plying those rail routes, there were occasional freight trains on those rails. They were not large trains, nor with extensive routes, but the lamented long-lost SoCal rail system moved freight.
Today there is a growing rail network owned and operated by Metro. The trains and the rail lines they ride are only for passengers, but, to repeat the past in a positive way, could these Metrorail lines and trains pull additional duty and haul freight?
This would obviously be for moving freight to local areas, but with the ports now working around the clock, the Metrorail lines could move freight in those hours when not in service for passengers.
There are tremendous logistical, and legal issues involved, but the need is urgent, and if successful could provide a blueprint for regularly freight hauling by Metrorail.
The first candidate would be the Metro Blue Line, or, excuse me the A Line, which runs from Long Beach to DTLA. Other lines for consideration would be the Green Line (C), which intersects the A Line; the Gold Line (L) which runs from DTLA to the east; the Red Line (B) which runs from DTLA to North Hollywood; perhaps the Expo Line (E) which runs from DTLA to Santa Monica; and while not in service though the tracks are laid the Crenshaw Line.
Metro would not operate the freight logistics, those would be the responsibilities of freight movers such as USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and so forth. They would handle all tracking, loading and unloading, logistics of moving the freight, and assume all responsibilities and liabilities. They would rent Metro’s tracks and trains. Metro would supply the train operators, track operators and whatever personnel required.
The Blue Line would be the source of all freight which could be moved directly from Long Beach to DTLA for local commerce, particularly the toy center which has unfulfilled orders which are becoming heavier and heavier with delays.
The Green Line at the Rosa Parks Station could accept freight from the Blue Line and travel east to Norwalk, and west to very close to LAX at the Aviation/Century Station.
Once at the 7th Street Station, DTLA, the freight could be unloaded for direct distribution, or transferred to the Red Line for Valley deliveries, or transferred to the Expo Line for Santa Monica deliveries.
If the Crenshaw Line was put into service it could accept freight from the Expo Line and take it to the Century Station which is a stone’s throw from major LAX freight moving companies.
This may be completely unworkable, but the nation is depending on SoCal to unload that armada of freight. The SoCal could show it is a region which can work together, or is a fragmented region, locked into their own territories, incapable of rising to the occasion.
(Matthew Hetz is a Los Angeles native. He is a transit rider and advocate, a composer, music instructor, and former member and president and executive director of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra. He is a CityWatch contributor.)
