The rail freight company Baja California Railroad (BJJR) says it is negotiating with Mexican and US customs authorities to offer customs clearance service between the two countries.

BJJR has taken this decision after acquiring a 112-kilometre rail network known as ‘Dessert Railroad’ in California. With this, BJJR can connect its Mexican rail freight network with its US counterpart beside the Pacific coast. Customs clearance is essential to offering a competitive service and avoiding transfers in the frontier between between the USA and Mexico in Tijuana.

Improvements

BJJR has made a major effort in the last two years to grow, having carried 126,000 tonnes between January and June this year. The Mexican company emerged as one contender for assuming part of the services offered by FNM, the Mexican rail society created in 1906 and dissolved by President Vicente Fox in 2001.

It wants to create a rail freight operator which connects Baja California State (Mexico) and California in the USA. To help facilitate this the company acquired four new locomotives in 2016, having increased its carrying capacity by 40 per cent and reducing its night work by 35 per cent.

The company also repaired 11 kilometres of track in Baja California and expanded Garcia Station, designing a rail dock to offer as many logistics services as possible. It then took the decision to acquire the Dessert railroad from Pacific Imperial Railroad, an American organisation which declared bankruptcy in October 2016.