(January 9, 2004) -- The governing board of the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA) has voted to implement an action plan expanding the role of the non-elected government body to include promoting extended operating hours for cargo distribution at the Ports of LB and L.A. and the regional distribution centers that serve them.

At its January 8 meeting, ACTA's governing board voted to empower ACTA management staff and its consultants to:

• Assist in the evaluation and implementation of extended operating hours of the cargo distribution system at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and the regional distribution centers that serve them.
• Work with the ports in optimizing the use of existing on-dock rail facilities.
• Develop a pilot program for a shuttle train operation.
• Assist the Port of Los Angeles and a railroad in developing a new near-dock intermodal container transfer facility (ICTF) that would accept containers for the Alameda Corridor, rather than trucking the containers on the Long Beach (710) Freeway.
• Work toward the development of the Caltrans Heim Bridge Replacement Project (SR-47) to improve port access and increase utilization of the Alameda Corridor south of State Route 91 as an alternative to the 710 and Harbor (110) freeways and local arterial streets.
• Participate in MTA and other agency goods-movement studies.
• Identify funding options.

ACTA boardmembers voted to allocate more than $3 million in anticipated costs to pursue the new roles the agency declared for itself...and ACTA staff has already devised timetables, financial projections, survey data and other initiatives to proceed.

ACTA's governing board chair, LB Vice Mayor Frank Colonna, said in an ACTA release, "We finally have a plan in place that will help us implement concepts we have been talking about for years. We will improve the quality of life for residents in Long Beach and other harbor communities while simultaneously moving the goods that fuel the local economy. This is a victory for residents, as well as the region’s commercial interests."

ACTA Vice Chair and L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn added in the release, "ACTA's future is no longer limited to the Alameda Corridor."

ACTA, a non-elected joint powers authority, was created to build and operate the Alameda Corridor, a rail expressway that conveys containerized cargo between the Ports and downtown L.A.'s transcontinental railyards and railroad mainlines. ACTA's governing board is comprised of two representatives each from the Ports of LB and L.A., one member each from the LB and L.A. City Councils and a representative of the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. They are:

The ACTA board's latest action follows its December 2003 vote, previously reported by LBReport.com, to approve assigning the agency these new roles. It was preceded in September 2003 by recommendations favoring ACTA's expansion into these new areas by an Ad Hoc Committee on Goods Movement, created by ACTA, comprised of ACTA Boardmembers Colonna, Hahn, Warren and Hankla.

In December 2003, ACTA said in a written release:

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