UP to invest $300 million in Calif. port The nation's largest railroad plans to invest in as many as 39 new electric gantry cranes to replace the old diesel cranes at the facility five miles north of the San Pedro Bay Port complex, according to this Associated Press report. The new cranes will allow Union Pacific to stack containers higher, increasing capacity without making the facility bigger. The railroad also will replace 10 diesel cranes at the 20-year-old facility in Los Angeles with newer electric cranes that will help reduce noise and emissions. "Union Pacific is committed to seeking out ways to improve the environment," Chief Executive Jim Young said. Containers that ships bring to the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports are trucked to the Union Pacific facility and loaded onto railcars. Union Pacific and other railroads refer to this part of the business as intermodal shipping because several modes of transportation are used to deliver the cargo. Union Pacific Corp. has said that intermodal shipping accounted for $2.8 billion of its $15.6 billion revenue last year.
I work at said facility (ICTF), wasn't quite aware this was announced lol. But yeah, there are a few plans in the work that I have seen, although I don't think anything has been officially been decided. Anything new will undoubtedly be electric though. As a note we currently don't stack containers, but that appears to be where we are headed in the future.
