$500 billion — or half a trillion dollars — that the major Class I railroads have spent since 1980 to build, maintain and fund the nation’s
nationwide rail network that
moves passenger and freight. That makes it difficult to refute the notion that freight railroads pay their way, so taxpayers don’t have to.” At that point, in its e-mail to R&R, AAR cites an October 2009 statement by the Fed- eral Railroad Administration which said that capacity enhancements “can only occur with Federal legislation and policies that al- low rail carriers to earn revenues that are sufficient to encourage their continued in- vestment in the system. Their investment meets National needs by enhancing safely reliability and capacity.”
To Clarify
Soo Line #2719 pulls excursion trains from Duluth to Two Harbors in Northeastern Minnesota. All day excursions behind 1923 Alco Pacifi c. Trains depart from the Lake Superior Railroad Museum at the Depot in downtown Duluth on Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays, August 10th
-September 9th , 2012.
The AAR says railroads are involved in pub- lic-private partnerships nationwide that are tied to development opportunities and busi- ness/employment opportunities of national significance. However, “Almost every case in- volved multiple states and the federal govern- ment,” and are promoted “by the public enti- ty, not the railroad,” with goals ranging from the environment, congestion relief, and “sur- face streets and transit flow improvements.” In fact, sometimes the railroad will un- dertake an aspect of the project on its own, “but perhaps not at the pace the local or state wanted. So the partners find a way to move the projects forward, using funds di- vided equitably among the parties based on their estimated benefits.”
The industry statement then cites acade- mic studies commissioned several years ago to develop a formulaic method for determin- ing how public and private entities involved
in these projects could be fair considering the benefits of the projects. The result of the research was that “no cookie-cutter ap- proach” could be found for determining how public and private contributions should be apportioned.
CREATE
Perhaps the most well-known of the public- private partnerships involving the industry is the CREATE project, an infrastructure project created to unsnarl the huge web of railroad routes centered in Chicago, Ameri- ca’s Number 1 railroad center. The list of participants reads almost like a directory of railroads in North America. In addition to the private freight carriers, other players in- clude Illinois DOT, Chicago DOT, Metra and Amtrak. AAR points to the following public and private benefits of CREATE: 1) Improve the speed and flow of passen- ger and freight traffic in the region. 2) Reduce highway congestion by cutting through conflicts between highway and rail movements.
3) Decrease fuel consumption for both highway and rail movements.
4) Cut down on air pollution from vehicu- lar emissions.
5) Improve public safety.
AAR notes that some of these benefits are public and some are private, but that “the CREATE partners have either sought fund- ing for or contributed to the program at a level that roughly equals the benefits re- ceived. So far the railroad partners have contributed more than $234 million in pri- vate funds out of the $1.3 billion spent or al- located to the programs.
Wes Vernon is a Washington-based writer and veteran broadcast journalist.
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