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Rail Transportation
What we learned...
 There are 52,340 miles of
primary rail corridors within the U.S. owned and operated primarily by the seven
Class I railroads—BNSF Railway, Canadian National (Grand Trunk Corporation),
Canadian Pacific (Soo Line), CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk
Southern, and Union Pacific. These primary corridors constitute about one-third
of all U.S. rail miles and carry the preponderance of rail freight traffic.
The key difference between railways is that outside the United States and Canada the right of way is primarily owned by government. In contrast, about 90% of the North American network is privately owned by vertically integrated freight railways. In North America, government-owned passenger operators--Amtrak, Via Rail, and the increasing number of commuter rail providers--use privately-owned infrastructure.
Beginning in 1996, Mexico dismantled its former rail monopoly by granting long-term concessions to
large US and Mexican interests. As a result, three major railroads and a series of short lines have been
created. TFM, Ferromex and Ferrosur, Mexico’s principal carriers, have made impressive gains in recent
3
years. Infrastructure investments are up substantially and service has improved dramatically. Rail is
gradually gaining market share from the trucking industry. However, the Mexican rail sector has not realized
its full potential.
Legal disputes are largely responsible. Trackage right disputes between the main carriers inhibit
cooperation, increase costs for shippers and stem the efficient use of the nationwide rail system. Most
shippers continue to use trucks to move their goods. Greater regulatory vigilance and legislative changes
are required to solve the trackage right conflict.
A 2007 study prepared for Association of American Railroads
by Cambridge Systematics, estimates that an investment of $148 billion (in 2007 dollars) for infrastructure
expansion over the next 28 years is required to keep pace with economic growth and meet the U.S. Department of Transportation’s forecast demand. Of this amount, the
Class I freight railroads’ share is projected to be $135 billion.
The Class I railroads
anticipate that they will be able to generate approximately $96 billion of their
$135 billion share through increased earnings from revenue growth, higher volumes,
and productivity improvements, while continuing to renew existing infrastructure
and equipment. This would leave a balance for the Class I freight
railroads of $39 billion or about $1.4 billion per year to be funded from railroad
investment tax incentives, public-private partnerships, or other sources.
Climate Change Impact
According to a march 2008 USGS Report on the impacts of Climate Change on transportation infrastructure in the central Gulf region of the United States, the prospect of a changing climate raises critical questions
regarding how alterations in temperature, precipitation, storm events, and other aspects of the climate could affect the nation’s roads, airports, rail, transit systems, pipelines, ports, and waterways.
Warming
temperatures are likely to increase the costs of transportation construction, maintenance,
and operations. More frequent extreme precipitation events may disrupt transportation
networks with flooding and visibility problems.
Relative sea level rise will make much of
the existing infrastructure more prone to frequent or permanent inundation – 27 percent of
the major roads, 9 percent of the rail lines, and 72 percent of the ports are built on land at or
below 122 cm (4 feet) in elevation in the central Gulf region.
Increased storm intensity may lead to increased service
disruption and infrastructure damage: More than half of the area’s major highways
(64 percent of Interstates; 57 percent of arterials), almost half of the rail miles, 29 airports,
and virtually all of the ports are below 7 m (23 feet) in elevation and subject to flooding
and possible damage due to hurricane storm surge.
Consideration of these factors in
today’s transportation decisions and planning processes should lead to a more robust,
resilient, and cost-effective transportation network in the coming decades.
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