AASHTO - Freight Transportation Network

Chair -- Astrid C. Glynn, New York
Vice Chair -- Kenneth Uznanski, Washington State
Secretary -- Leo Penne, AASHTO

Reports/Studies

Intercity Passenger Rail Transportation Report
"provides an overview of intercity passenger rail service in the United States, summarizing the characteristics of the current system, reviewing the relevant, history and projecting future plans … It aggregates state estimates of investment needs to the national level to establish the cost of realizing the benefits of efficient and dependable intercity passenger rail service and to support the case for dedicated, sustainable, federal funding.”
Intercity Passenger Report Summary (PDF) The Freight Rail Bottom Line Report
"describes the freight-rail industry, analyzes its benefits to the nation, estimates investment needs and the capacity to meet these needs, and quantifies the consequences of not investing in freight rail, including the impact on highway congestion and condition …. the report finds that relatively small public investments in the nation’s freight railroads can be leveraged into relatively large public benefits for the nation’s highway infrastructure, highway users, and freight shippers.”
Freight Rail Bottom Line Full Report (PDF)

NCHRP 08-36, Task 43 --Return on Investment on Freight Rail Capacity Improvement
April 2005
Background: The rail industry, unlike other modes of transportation operates over infrastructure largely owned and maintained by private corporations. Like any business, railroads are motivated by shareholder value, and have therefore focused capital investments in the most profitable traffic lanes and rationalized unprofitable track. The result is a more efficient network that operates closer to capacity limits. While this may be a good business model, the rail industry is not well positioned to accommodate the anticipated growth in freight traffic and expanded role desired by much of the public sector. Read more on: NCHRP 08-36, Task 43

National Cooperative Highway Research Program --Active Project
Project 8-42, FY 2002
Background: Interaction between rail and other modes of freight movement continues to be an issue for transportation planners. On the one hand, concerns about reliability, flexibility, and timeliness have contributed to a decline in market share for rail-freight movements. On the other hand, congestion, air quality, safety, and security concerns lead planners to consider rail options. There is a particular need to analyze the impacts and opportunities for public investment in rail-freight capacity to help mitigate roadway congestion. Read more on: Rail-Freight Solutions to Roadway Congestion

The Past and Future of U.S. Passenger Rail Service September 2003
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Study
Prepared at the request of the Senate Budget Committee-reviews past policies toward Amtrak and the fundamental economics of passenger rail service. The review suggests that there are only limited conditions under which passenger rail service in the Untied States could be economically viable without subsidies. This study also explores the implications of four options for future federal support of passenger rail, ranging form eliminating federal subsidies to funding a massive expansion of rail service. In keeping with CBO’s mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, the study makes no recommendations.
CBO Study (PDF)
Report Number: K-Tran: KSU-01-5 Final
Impact of Kansas Grain Transportation on Kansas Highway Damage Costs
According to the publication Kansas Grain Transportation (2001), the motor carrier share of wheat shipped from Kansa grain elevators increased from 37 percent in 1990 to 47 percent in 1997. The corresponding percentages for corn shipped from Kansas grain elevators were 62 percent in 1990 and 72 percent in 1999. For soybeans, the motor carrier market shares were 35 percent and 53 percent for 1990 and 1999 respectively.

Changes have occurred in the Kansas grain transportation system that has increased trucking of grain. Class I railroads in Kansas have encouraged the construction of unit train (100 or more railcars) loading facilities on their main lines. Kansas farmers will truck their grain to much greater distance to obtain the higher grain price at the unit train loading location. Farmers will bypass the local grain elevator, and the shoreline serving it, and truck the grain to the unit train loading facility, resulting in increased road damage costs.

The increasing size of grain railcars threatens to reduce shortline railroad grain traffic and increase grain trucking. The new super jumbo covered hopper cars have loaded weights of 286,000 pounds, much higher than most of the shortline railroad track in Kansas is capable of handling. As the percentage of the grain car fleet that can move on shorelines declines, grain shippers will have no alternative but to truck their grain to terminal markets. Impact of Kansas Grain

I-81 Marketing Study
Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation
http://www.drpt.state.va.us/projects/current/i81.aspx

The Northwest and Mid Altantic States Report
Investors in Intercity Passenger Rail that serves the Region and the Nation
As the debate on the role of intercity passenger rail in the nation's transportation system accelerates, renewed attention is focused on such questions as "what are the costs" and "who pays" to provide intercity passenger rail. At the heart of the question of who pays is a growing debate about the role and responsibility of states to fund the nation's intercity passenger rail system.
http://www.sehsr.org/reports.html
Volume I: Executive Summary and Main Report
Technical Monograph: Transportation Planning for the Richmond-Charlotte Railroad Corridor
Should the States of North Carolina and Virginia desire to upgrade the railroad corridor between Richmond and Charlotte for improved passenger service that meets a specific travel time goal, a number of infrastructure improvements would be needed. This monograph enumerates, describes, and costs a set of improvements that could, in combination, support a trip time goal of 4 hours, 25 minutes between Richmond and Charlotte. The operational implications of such a service are discussed. As the corridor contains a variety of operating conditions, this monograph may be of technical assistance to other States that are contemplating similar rail passenger service projects.
Read report http://www.sehsr.org/reports.html

Kentucky Statewide Rail Plan
Rail System / Rail Safety / Rails To Trails Program
The Kentucky Statewide Rail Plan wasan 18 month long project being conducted by Wilbur Smith Associates for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Division of Multimodal Programs. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has developed the 2002 Kentucky Statewide Rail Plan for two reasons. First, it represents the rail modal plan that addresses system wide strategies and policies and conforms to the goals established in the 2001 Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Strategic Plan and 1999 Kentucky Statewide Transportation Plan. Second, it provides a vehicle to present future rail issues and meet Federal Railroad Administration requirements for federal funding, as it becomes available.
Read report http://www.wilbursmith.com/kystateplan/

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