Baja California Railroad, Inc. (BJRR) is a

class III railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$5 ...

operating in the northwest of

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, interchanging with

San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad The San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad (SD&IV) is a class III railroad operating freight rail service in the San Diego area, providing service to customers in the region and moving railcars between the end of the BNSF Railway in Downtown San ...

San Ysidro San Ysidro (Spanish for " St. Isidore", ) is a district of the City of San Diego, immediately north of the Mexico–United States border. It neighbors Otay Mesa West to the north, Otay Mesa to the east, and Nestor and the Tijuana River Valley ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. After rehabilitation efforts are completed on the Desert Line portion of the railroad, an interchange is also planned with the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

Plaster City, California Plaster City is an unincorporated community in Imperial County in the U.S. state of California. It is located west of El Centro, at an elevation of 105 feet (32 m). United States Gypsum operates a large gypsum quarry and plant there and owns ...

. The railroad is managed by ADMICARGA (), a Baja California government entity. It does not connect to any other railroads in Mexico's rail system.

Operations

BJRR's biggest clients are Z Gas, North StarGas, Empacadora Rosarito, and

Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma (Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma / Heineken México) (English: Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery) is a major brewery based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, founded in 1890. It is a subsidiary of Heineken Inter ...

Tecate Tecate () is a city in Tecate Municipality, Baja California. It is across the Mexico-US border from Tecate, California. As of 2019, the city had a population of 108,860 inhabitants, while the metropolitan area has a population of 132,406 inhab ...

, which receives large amounts of grain and corn syrup imports. Other clients receive shipments such as borax, pig lard, lumber, steel, paper, and cattle feed.

History

Operations began in 2012, using of the former track of the , which was constructed in 1910 by the San Diego & Arizona Railway from

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

to El Centro. The BJRR is the technical operating and maintenance assistant of the rail line's Baja California segment under agreement from the railroad's operator, ADMICARGA. In February 2013, the local Baja California directors of BJRR announced an investment of $20 million to upgrade the neglected track. The first area to be developed was the first from the border in Tijuana to El Florido as far as Matanuco. Work started in May 2013 with the building of the Tijuana railroad yard; the focus was on more track capacity, in conjunction with the upcoming ''San Ysidro Freight Rail Yard'' Improvement Project by

SANDAG The San Diego Association of Governments (abbreviated SANDAG) is an association of local San Diego County governments. It is the metropolitan planning organization for the County, with policy makers consisting of mayors, councilmembers, and Cou ...

. In June 2016, Baja California Railroad secured a 99-year lease with the

San Diego Metropolitan Transit System The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (''SDMTS'' or often simply ''MTS'') is a public transit service provider for Central, South, Northeast and Southeast San Diego County. The agency directly operates a large transit system that includes ...

(SDMTS) to rehabilitate and operate an additional of track in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

between

Campo, California Campo ( Spanish for "Field") is an unincorporated community in the Mountain Empire area of southeastern San Diego County, California, United States. The population was 2,684 at the 2010 census. For statistical purposes, the United States Census B ...

and

. The line, with 57 bridges and 17 tunnels, will be rehabilitated in three phases: Phase 1, Campo to

Jacumba Hot Springs, California Jacumba Hot Springs ( ) is an unincorporated community in the Mountain Empire area of southeastern San Diego County, California, United States. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau defined Jacumba Hot Springs as a census-d ...

; phase 2, Dos Cabezas (near

Ocotillo Wells, California Ocotillo Wells is an unincorporated community in San Diego County, California, United States. It is west of the Imperial County line on California State Route 78 at an elevation of . The name became official in 1962 when it was adopted for ...

) to Plaster City; and phase 3, from Jacumba to Dos Cabezas. The railroad paid SDMTS $1 million per year to retain its lease; Baja California Railroad stopped paying SDMTS beginning in 2020, breaking its lease.

Route and stations

Tijuana Station

Tijuana Station is located immediately to the south of the US

San Ysidro Port of Entry __NOTOC__ The San Ysidro Port of Entry (aka San Ysidro Land Port of Entry or San Ysidro LPOE) is the largest land border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, and the fourth- busiest land border crossing in the world (second-busiest if one exclu ...

. The station is now in a three-story building that contains new administrative offices, an operations and logistics control center, offices for ADMICARGA (the railroad's operator), customs control, a customs agency (broker), the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the State Committee of Vegetable Sanitation (CESV). There is also space for sixty-eight cars. The original railway station, built in the late 1920s, will become a railway museum.

García Station

García Station is farther east, near La Mesa of Tijuana municipality. It has a two-story building with a reception area and offices for customer service, administration, and logistics. Also, after renovations, the storage capacity was increased to , of which is for cold storage.

References

{{California railroads Railway companies established in 2010 Railway companies of Mexico Standard gauge railways in Mexico