Commuter & Light Rail Projects Driving Nearly $50 Billion in California Industrial Manufacturing Industry Spending

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). The state of California has always been forward thinking with its laws, especially in terms of environmental and conservation issues. Thus, it comes as no surprise to see the sheer volume of mass transit projects, specifically light and commuter rail projects, that have been proposed in the last decade within the state. With an eye on future pollution reduction, it was only a manner of time before the state of California as a whole embraced the environmentally friendly commuter and light rail options of the future as viable modes of transportation for the state. As a result of this forward thinking, tens of billions of dollars have and will be committed to these types of projects within the state. This becomes very obvious when you take a look at current future spending plans for the state of California within the Industrial Manufacturing Industry, which plays host to both commuter and light rail project spending. Currently, Industrial Info Resources is tracking close to 60 projects worth just under $50 billion that are planned for the state of California in the near future.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the breakdown of rail project spending by year.

A look at the projects that make up this incredible spending total shows that the majority of this spending will come in the form of commuter and light rail projects. From Redding to San Diego, everyone wants to get in on the commuter and light rail bandwagon.

The top ten projects within the state, in terms of total investment value, in the Industrial Manufacturing Industry all fall under the realm of commuter or light rail. On the high end, we have the proposed $40 billion grassroot high-speed rail system. This incredible project will construct a high-speed rail line running 700 miles from San Francisco to San Diego with trains capable of reaching speeds of up to 220 miles per hour. Current estimates have construction beginning on this project sometime in 2010, with the lien being completed by 2013.

On the lower end of commuter and light rail projects, at least in terms of dollars to be spent, there is the $200 million grassroot Sonoma Marin area rail transit line (SMART) in Cloverdale. This project will involve the construction of a 75-mile rail corridor with fourteen new stations that will eventually provide rail service from Cloverdale to San Rafael.

Other industries are also planning to spend significant amounts of money within California. After the rail industry, California’s ports are planning some serious spending to expand their capacity and improve their cargo handling efficiency to better compete with the ports in the Far East such as China and Japan.

Chief among the port spenders is the Port of Long Beach with over $200 million in proposed project work in the state. The Port of Long Beach is followed by the Port of Los Angeles with an additional $100 million in projects in the planning stages. High on the priority list of projects at both ports are security upgrades and expansions. With the Office of Homeland Security taking a much closer look at what comes in and goes out of the nation’s ports post 9/11, increased security has become the norm nationwide.

Some of the other industries currently planning to spend money within California’s borders include the aerospace industry, the state’s universities , solar panel manufacturers, regional distribution centers, and defense contractors.

Spending is booming within the state of California in the Industrial Manufacturing Industry. While the rail industry is taking the lion’s share of the spending focus right now, many other industries have big plans for the state. The addition of all the rail projects will only help to increase the capital spending in California in the future as a significantly developed rail infrastructure will be a huge selling point for new development.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 23 years. IIR is respected as the leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.