Funding Infrastructure Upgrade
Needs on Short Lines

by

Allan M. Zarembski, Ph.D., P.E.
President, ZETA-TECH Associates, Inc.

Frank Turner, Executive Director
American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association

The Short Line Problem

The short line and regional railroad industry has approximately 50,000 of the nation's 170,000 railway miles, but less than 10% of the US Railway Industry’s gross revenues. This translates to a per mile average revenue of $60,000 for the short line industry which is less than one quarter that of the Class 1 railroads’ $269,000 average revenue per mile. While short line labor costs are approximately 15% less than those for Class 1 railroads , and operating speeds are generally lower, nonetheless, the short line’s track structure is often maintained at a level that is well below the standards of the main lines of the major Class 1 freight railroads. Nevertheless, short lines must function as an integral part of the U.S. railroad network and as such provide service to thousands of local communities. This means that they must be able to handle whatever rail equipment moves on the Class I network, including the new generation of 286,000 lb. cars. However, while the current condition of track and structures on short lines is generally adequate for traditional 263,000 pound cars, it is often inadequate for the new generation 286,000 pound cars. This increase in car weight translates into damage to the track structure that is as much as 20% higher than that caused by the “standard” 263,000 pound car. This led to concerns about the ability of the short line infrastructure to effectively handle this new traffic.
In order to really see how big the 286,000 lb. car challenge was to the short line industry, the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) in early 2000 decided to look at the challenge of this new generation heavy axle load equipment. ASLRRA obtained funding from the Federal Railroad Administration for a study of short line investment needs. Consultant ZETA-TECH Associates, Inc. was then retained to analyze track conditions on short lines and to analyze the investment needed to safely handle these heavier cars on a long term basis.

Quantifying the Cost

In order to define the level of investment needed by short lines and regional railroads, ZETA-TECH carried out an engineering based study that addressed track and bridge requirements to accommodate 286,000 lb. cars. This study encompassed detailed collection of information from almost 10% of the short line population, approximately 5,000 miles, together with an engineering analysis to determine the amount of component replacements required to bring the industry to a desired standard of safe, long-term operation.

As part of this engineering analysis, ZETA-TECH developed a set of minimum track conditions for safe, long term, operation of 286,000 lb. cars, and constructed a series of “matrices” in which each category of track component (rail, ties, ballast, turnouts) was rated as to its suitability to carry 286K loads in service. Then these individual rankings were put together, and their interactions considered. In this process, each track component on each rail line was assigned to one of three categories:

OK (adequate for 286,000 lb. car loadings)
Marginal (replacement determined by condition of other track components)
Replace (in need of replacement or improvement, regardless of condition of other components)

An example of the analysis process is shown in Table 1. In this example, rail is marginal (based on the classification based on rail size and annual level of traffic-tonnage). If ballast condition is marginal or poor, ballasting and surfacing will be required. If tie condition is marginal or poor but ballast section is good, tie renewal will be required. Since rail has been defined here as marginal, if both ties and ballast are marginal or poor complete track renewal is needed. With good tie and ballast condition, the marginal rail can remain in track without need for replacement.

A similar analysis was performed, for each track component category; rail, ties, ballast, and turnout.

Table 1: Example for Rail

Example: Rail Condition = Marginal

Tie Condition	Action Taken

OK	OK	Replace Ballast	Replace Ballast
Marginal	Replace ties	Replace All	Replace All
Replace	Replace ties	Replace All	Replace All

Ballast Condition	OK	Marginal	Replace

In calculating the quantities of work required, ZETA-TECH’s methodology calculated the component replacements required to achieve “OK” rather than marginal condition, on the ground that if track is upgraded to a level only marginally adequate for 286K cars, in a few years additional components will fail, producing inadequate track.

Based on this detailed study, ZETA-TECH determined that extensive commercial use of heavy axle freight cars would require the following investment for short lines and regional railroads:

22% of existing rail must be replaced
43% of track miles will require at least some ties
23% of track miles will require some ballast and surfacing
38% of turnouts (Switches) will require replacement or upgrade, and
22% of bridges will require replacement, with another 27% requiring some level of repair or upgrade.

The total cost for these upgrades came to $6.86 Billion as summarized in Figure 1. For the approximately 50,000 miles of short line and regional railroad track this came to an average cost of $137,000 per mile.

Figure 1: Calculated Cost of Upgrading Short Line and
Regional Railroads to Handle 286,000 lb. Cars

Component	Total Cost (Industry)	Required Investment per Mile
Rail	$3,754,182,002	$75,106
Ties	818,362,236	$16,372
Ballast/Surfacing	132,789,720	$2,657
Turnouts	393,996,056	$7,882
Bridges	1,761,253,773	$35,236

Total	$6,860,583,787	$137,253

Track Mileage	49,985

Selling the Conclusions

The study’s $6.86 billion upgrade cost was widely reported in industry publications. It drew the attention of both houses of Congress, and both the ASLRRA and ZETA-TECH were asked to testify before Congress. This included testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (Railroad Subcommittee) on July 26, 2000 by both Frank Turner of the ASLRRA and Dr. Allan M. Zarembski of ZETA-TECH Associates, Inc. Additional testimony was given by Dr. Zarembski before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee (Surface Transportation Subcommittee) on May 9, 2001.
Somebody listened to the testimony. When Congressman Don Young (R., Alaska) recently introduced his $71 billion RIDE-21 bill, there was a specific $7 billion set-aside in the loan portion of the bill for short line improvements. So not only were the conclusions of ASLRRA’s study accepted, something was done in response.
ASLRRA continues to search for funding in other areas. In addition to the $7 billion in RIDE-21, $350 million in grants have been included in another infrastructure bill now being debated. So the point has been made: short lines are an integral part of the nation’s rail network, and must have adequate sources of funding to allow them to continue to participate as partners with the Class I railroads.