President's Message

 

Increasing Rail Capacity

by Lou Cohn, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE
President, Transportation and Development Institute of the ASCE

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Before I share my thoughts on increasing rail capacity, let me offer our condolences to the victims of the I-35W bridge collapse, and encouragement to the MNDOT, FHWA, NTSB engineers who will be working non-stop to find the cause and prevent such future disasters.  Without a doubt there will be many T&DI and ASCE members heavily involved in this effort.

 

Now to increasing rail capacity – There are currently two bills before Congress (S. 1125 in the Senate and H.R. 2116 in the house) that are designed to offer incentives to the private sector to invest in projects designed to increase rail capacity.  This is a necessary and worthy goal for many reasons.  First among them is the need to provide alternatives to the increasing number of trucks on the interstate highways.  Current truck percentages at night are far greater than they were a generation ago, sometimes exceeding 75 percent.  This causes excessive wear and tear on the highways, significant environmental problems (e.g., noise at night), and burns too much fuel per ton mile.  For example, one locomotive can move a ton of freight 414 miles on a single gallon of diesel fuel, which is one-third to one-fourth the amount used by a truck.

 

In January 2003, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) published the Freight Rail Bottom Line Report.  AASHTO found that a 1% increase in rail's share of the freight market by 2020 would:

  • Allow nearly 600 million tons of additional freight to move by rail - enough to fill almost 15 million trucks per year,
  • Reduce traffic congestion and save drivers almost $20 billion per year in time and fuel costs,
  • Save taxpayers at least $17 billion in additional highway costs over 20 years,
  • Reduce transportation costs for shippers by $25 billion per year - a savings which can then be passed on to consumers, and
  • Create greater efficiencies for the entire transportation system by carrying trailer loads and containers on cost-efficient, low-emission intermodal trains for movements between cities.

The constraint to moving more freight by rail is the limited capacity of the system.  Not only does track mileage need to be increased, but there is also the need to enhance and modernize the support structure of the rail system, such as intermodal transfer facilities and other related buildings.

 

The two bills in congress would address the capacity question by offering a 25 percent tax credit for capital expenditures to businesses that invest in new freight rail infrastructure that expands rail capacity.  This would give railroads, shippers, and others incentives to lay 'track where no track has gone before.'  The bill would also put railroads on equal footing with trucking companies and barges by allowing railroads to "expense" their infrastructure spending.  The legislation has been named “The Freight Rail Infrastructure Capacity Expansion Act” and is commonly called FRICEA.

 

Rail transportation has always been a vital part of the US economy and way of life.  Perhaps it has been a little neglected since the dawn of the interstate highway system, but given the current crises we see in highway congestion and roadway deterioration, pollution and energy consumption, it offers some very attractive options, especially in the freight movement domain.  It simply needs more capacity.