Ports, rail & intermodal operations
More than 34,000 import containers await rail at LA–Long Beach
· Source: Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach data / The Dwell
Daily port reports compiled by The Dwell counted 34,592 rail-bound import containers at Los Angeles and Long Beach on October 27, including 12,222 that had waited at least nine days. The backlog is concentrated on the on-dock rail side; it is a daily container count, not an average dwell time or evidence that every truck-destined box is delayed.
Summary and practical context by RoadHouse Recruiting · Reviewed
Los Angeles carries the larger and older rail queue
The October 27 port reports counted 18,709 rail-bound import boxes at Los Angeles, with 8,772 waiting at least nine days, and 15,883 at Long Beach, with 3,450 at nine days or more. That puts the older share at 46.9% in Los Angeles and 21.7% in Long Beach. The prior day's combined count was slightly higher at 35,688, so operators should use the daily trend rather than treating one snapshot as a fixed backlog size.
Terminal and railroad exposure is uneven
At Los Angeles, BNSF-bound boxes accounted for most of the nine-day-plus rail queue, while Union Pacific boxes were the larger older group at Long Beach. Terminal-level shares also varied widely. A port-wide average can therefore hide a much worse condition at a specific terminal, railroad or destination lane.
Record cargo and railcar constraints are contributing
FreightWaves linked the buildup to record September cargo, limited Southern California intermodal railcars and equipment-positioning problems. Los Angeles handled about 1.04 million TEUs in September and Long Beach about 997,000. Those throughput figures help explain network pressure, but they do not by themselves establish the cause or duration of an individual container's delay.
Do not confuse container counts with dwell averages
The rail figure counts individual import containers staged for an on-dock train at a point in time, and the nine-day figure is a subset. It is not an average number of days, a TEU count, railcar terminal dwell or vessel-berth delay. The Port of Los Angeles dashboard separately counted 47,916 import containers on terminals on October 27, of which 12,957 had reached nine days or more across all inland modes.
What intermodal shippers and drayage providers should do
RoadHouse perspective: check the terminal, railroad, inland ramp and nine-day status for each box; compare on-dock rail with a feasible transload or dray alternative; and price storage, demurrage, chassis and appointment effects before changing modes. Communicate revised ETA ranges to warehouses and customers instead of relying on the vessel-discharge date.
Understanding the update
The Dwell compiles the ports' official daily on-dock rail reports and clearly defines the measurement. FreightWaves independently reported the backlog and cited port, PMSA and shipper-market evidence. Counts change each business day and should not be treated as a permanent capacity figure.
What it means for drivers and carriers
The current bottleneck is especially acute for rail-bound imports at Los Angeles; shipment-level terminal and railroad data are more useful than a single combined port headline.
Questions to consider
- How many days has the specific container waited, and which railroad and terminal control its next move?
- Is transload or drayage practical after including appointments, chassis, storage and inland linehaul?
- Has the final receiver been given a realistic ETA range and escalation trigger?
Read the original reporting
This page provides an original summary and practical commentary. The linked source contains the full reporting. Older stories reflect information available on their published dates.
Read the source at Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach data / The Dwell ↗ (opens in a new tab)