Are freight trains replacing long haul trucks?
The FHWA Freight Management and Operations website may be of interest to you as well as the phrase “Intermodal Freight Transport”.
Interesting question. I’ve studied this, but it’s been a few years since I’ve been up on the material so my knowledge may be out of date. Quick answers: 1) Rail is (almost always) cheaper than truck-based transport, but can take longer; with the economy being what it is, I’d assume that shippers are willing to wait longer if they can save money on shipping. If I have time, I’ll pull the statistics up tonight (there’s a lot of available statistics via DOT and others on the web.) 2) There is almost no new track. In fact the overall track mileage has been declining in the last 30+ years as non-mainline rail is abandoned or transformed via rails to trails. Amtrak is particularly prone to delay as they are generally lower-priority than freight trains on railroads that the freight rail companies own.
Well, rail freight volume is down nationally around 10-30% from last year. That includes intermodal, which has lost about a quarter of its volume. As much as 30% of rolling stock is idle on sidings. It’s entirely possible your particular line has seen an increase — for instance, perhaps a new intermodal terminal opened up, or the customer mix has changed. Or maybe you’re seeing empty intermodals. As for new tracks, in general the track mileage has been declining by a staggering rate. But then, railroad mileage peaked in 1916, if you can believe it. The rail industry was overbuilt and redundancy was common. As companies merged to create larg
Well, a short line tax credit extension just got passed through congress late last year, which will help subsidize rail rehabilitation and expansion. Furthermore I work for a national association of railroad contractors, and they are doing incredibly well right now as an industry. Despite what others in this thread are saying there is a lot of rail being built right now, and there are some big plans for the future, with high speed rail and freight corridor expansions planned nationwide. Look up RT&S and Railway Age for more information.
