How to improve the efficiency of railway freight transport in the urban area? Lessons from Los Angeles Alameda rail cargo expressway

The Los Angeles Alameda rail cargo expressway, which cost about 2.4 billion US dollars and took more than 25 years for planning and construction, has illuminated that by using the advantage of the transportation geographical location, consolidating rail routes resources and constructing a 20-mile railroad trench and 43 grade separations, the railroad system may successfully integrate to the urban multi-modal transportation system and to the urban fabric. This innovation of the freight transportation makes the urban railroads become the important propelling force but hindrances for urban development. This paper takes this as a case, introducing basic situation of the Alameda rail cargo expressway and the evolution of corridor's plan and construction process. Further, this rail corridor's important effects to the Los Angeles' urban area are analyzed. And, the paper summarizes the key lessons, for the big urban, how to make use of railroad in the urban multi-modal transportation system, to improve the freight transport efficiency in urban region, to eliminate the conflicts between the railroads and the city surface transportation, and to cut off the congestion in urban area. The conclusion of this paper includes some principles for improving the effciency of railway freight transport in urban area and provides the important ideas and the practice experices for development of urban freight transport in China.