BNSF's Barstow rail project faces a 34-month build before any freight moves

For any IE operator weighing whether the Barstow International Gateway changes their business, the first thing worth knowing is how far off it is. BNSF's filing with the state, submitted in February, lays out a construction schedule of about 34 months and an opening year of 2028. Construction has not started; the city approved the project in early June, and BNSF expects to break ground in late 2026 or early 2027.

The filing breaks the build into phases of differing length. The shorter pieces — the south mainlines, the intermodal facility, and the 9-million-square-foot transload warehouse center — run roughly 14 to 17 months each. The longer ones — the block swap yard and the north mainline upgrades — run about 1,033 days apiece, close to three years, and would set the overall pace. A roughly 600-day electrical undergrounding phase and a shorter solar-farm build round out the schedule. BNSF estimates the work would require about 8,177 construction workers a year.

The project is further along on paper than the unstarted construction suggests. BNSF says it has completed 60 percent of design drawings and owns roughly 98 percent of the footprint, and it expects most major permits in 2026. That matters for timing: the land assembly and environmental review that typically stall large industrial projects are largely behind this one, which makes the late-2026 start date more credible than it would be for a project still acquiring parcels.

The operational ramp would be gradual even after opening. BNSF's filing says the transload warehouse center would be fully built during construction but would fill over time as tenants relocate, with warehouse employment rising from about 2,767 in the 2028 opening year to roughly 4,248 by 2048. The truck-mile reductions the railroad projects follow the same long arc — modeled at 205 million in 2028 and climbing through 2048.

The takeaway for an operator is runway. Whatever competitive pressure a rail-fed Barstow campus would put on IE transload business, it would arrive on a multi-year timeline, not next quarter — first dirt in 2026 or 2027, first freight in 2028, full effect well beyond. The construction schedule is the clock to watch as the project moves from approval to build.