Alameda Corridor Needs Reserve Capacity

Several months ago, I started seeing the “Alameda Corridor not running at capacity” theme in print, and I note that you have repeated it here (“Keep on Trucking at the Ports,” James Flanigan, Oct. 22).

In response, I would have to say, “I hope not!”

Constructing the corridor was a very expensive and disruptive project. If it were running near capacity now, less than two years from opening day, we would be shaking our heads, saying, “What were the designers thinking?”

Look at the intermodal traffic growth figures for the last five years, and look at the projections. If the corridor did not have a lot of reserve capacity when it entered service, it would be obsolete in five years. It had to be built with an eye toward what the traffic will be in 10 to 20 years.

If the corridor weren’t hosting enough traffic to generate fees sufficient to service the debt on the project, that would be a matter for concern and comment, but it is in fact meeting or exceeding its revenue projections. The corridor is doing what it was designed to do.

Don Norton

Rancho Palos Verdes