Harbor Panel Backs Out of Land Deal for Rail Line

The Board of Harbor Commissioners has decided to pull out of an agreement to purchase property needed for the Alameda Corridor, although officials emphasized that the massive transportation project has not been derailed.

The Alameda Corridor would expand rail lines from the Port of Los Angeles to the Central City, greatly improving the port’s ability to distribute goods to markets across the country. The rail construction would employ thousands.

“We are still committed to doing the project,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Ezunial Burts said after the Harbor Commission meeting Wednesday. “It’s an important project to the port, to our tenants and important to the economic infrastructure of the region. This is not an action on the project; it is an action on the agreement.”

In June, officials from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach signed an agreement to purchase the right of way from the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. The port, however, was allowed to back out of the agreement if deadlines were not met on certain conditions.

Officials said Wednesday that port staff found “substantial title issues and raised questions regarding the port’s ability to use the corridor for its long-term purposes,” compelling port officials to withdraw from the agreement.

The completion of the sale also was contingent on reaching an agreement for joint use of the right of way among the Santa Fe, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific companies, but such an accord has not been achieved.

“It is difficult to terminate such an important contract so early in our tenure as commissioners, but some of these issues could take months to resolve and the agreement gave us no other options,” Harbor Commissioner Steven Soboroff said.

In addition to problems found with the title, unspecified environmental issues remain unresolved as do obstacles to the general joint operating agreement of the Santa Fe, the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific railroads, Burts said.

“These are major issues and major concerns,” Burts said. “You’ve got three railroads that need to agree to use the corridor, and the operating parameters need to be discussed.

“We have had conversations with the individual railroads and need to have additional conversations with them,” he said.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who last week visited the harbor and touted the Alameda Corridor project as being central to the economic welfare of the city, said he supported the commission’s decision. “I reaffirm my commitment to the Alameda Corridor Project as a critical component of our strategy for economic growth,” Riordan said.

“However, my commissioners have advised me that many serious questions have arisen during the port’s investigation of the property. The purchase agreement requires the port to terminate the contract to resolve these issues. I have instructed my commissioners to work diligently to address these issues as soon as possible.”