advertisement

---

Moody’s Investors Services recently downgraded its single-step credit rating for the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority’s (ACTA) senior and subordinate lien bonds.

The authority — which oversees the 20-mile Alameda Corridor between Los Angeles’ ports and downtown L.A. — doesn’t expect Moody’s decision to “downgrade our bond ratings one notch” to impact corridor operations or day-to-day business, ACTA officials said in a prepared statement.

“The positive indicators that point to container volumes increasing at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will, we believe, lead to an upturn in containers traveling through the Alameda Corridor and long-term growth in ACTA revenues,” they said. “In response to the recession, ACTA has undertaken programs to ensure it will meet its debt-service obligations.”

For example, the authority is trying to restructure its debt to reduce debt service during the next five to 10 years, and increase debt service in future years “when projections demonstrate that more than substantial revenue would be available,” ACTA officials said.

A recent Global Insight-Tioga Consensus Cargo forecast commissioned by the ports predicts that container volume will more than triple by 2035.