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A
costly business
by Peggy Baer, Director, Office of Rail Transportation
A recent press
release by the Iowa Department of Transportation discussed
the increasing cost of asphalt, steel and cement used in
road building projects. The average increase in the cost of
materials over the last year is 20 percent, which reduces
the buying power of road building dollars. Similar increases
in the price of railroad materials are also occurring.
Railroad projects use steel, wooden ties, rock for ballast,
asphalt for crossings, and computer technology in signal
systems.
 Railroad improvements use a large part of railroad
companies’ annual revenues. The industry cites statistics
that indicate 18 percent of annual rail revenues are spent
on capital expenditures such as new track, locomotives,
freight cars, and signals to enhance and upgrade the
railroad system. This contrasts with manufacturing companies
that typically spend 3.5 to 4 percent of their revenues on
capital expenditures.
It takes just over $2 million to build a single mile of new
railroad track. The average cost of a signal with gates at a
highway-railroad crossing is $180,000. The average cost to
rebuild a two-lane, paved highway-railroad crossing is
$60,000. Connecting a business to the rail system can cost
between $500,000 and $1 million per mile of track.
Railroad bridge upgrading or replacement can be very
expensive. The Union Pacific (UP) plans to build a second
major bridge over the Des Moines River just west of Boone,
Iowa. The bridge will be next to the existing Kate Shelley
double-track bridge. The new bridge will enable UP trains to
go at the faster speeds that are necessary today to keep
freight moving. There are several rail bridges over the
Mississippi River that are very old, some in excess of 100
years of age. The bridge supports can impede river traffic, as
do some swing-span bridges that must be opened and closed.
The cost of replacement or upgrading these bridges is in the
hundreds of millions of dollars.
The rapid growth of the biofuels industry in Iowa has added
miles of track since this industry relies heavily on rail to
deliver its product. A typical biofuel plant must build
between $3 million and $5 million worth of track structure,
and sometimes much more. The UP is spending over $61 million
on its lines in Iowa and Minnesota to upgrade the system to
handle increased ethanol traffic. On the Iowa Northern
Railway line, a huge ethanol reload and trading facility is
being built to facilitate biofuels shipments
from northeastern Iowa. Many other railroads, large and
small, are making infrastructure improvements to handle this
commodity.
Nationwide, the U.S. railroads have stated they
invested over $8 billion in 2006 alone to maintain and
build additional track facilities. Of course, fuel is a
large expense item for railroads just as it is for the
trucking industry. The cost to keep the products that Iowans
use and produce moving is increasing, and will affect us all
in the prices we pay for goods and services.
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Access Rail
Iowa
businesses and communities are increasingly interested in
connections to Iowa’s rail system. For businesses,
rail transportation can lower costs and open more distant
markets, which help businesses be more profitable and grow.
For communities, rail connections can spur job
growth and development. For railroads, new customers lead to
increased revenues and the capability to invest in
improvements to their rail infrastructure. And for all
Iowans, the availability of a strong rail system adds to the
state's future economic potential.
Adding or expanding a rail connection is an investment in
permanent infrastructure, but a very costly one. In 2005,
the Iowa legislature created the
Rail Revolving Loan and
Grant Program (RRLGP) to assist in building rail connections
and a stronger rail system. The RRLGP is funded through loan
repayments and appropriations. Each year, available funds
are competitively awarded with 50 percent or more awarded as
loans and the remainder as grants.
Demand for assistance from the RRLGP has far outstripped
available funds. In
June 2006, 26 applications requesting a
total of $16 million in assistance competed for $3.5 million
in available funds. In
December 2006, 16 applicants
requesting a total of $11.9 million in assistance competed
for $1.5 million in available funds.
Clearly, the needs for Iowa businesses and communities are
not being met at the current funding levels. As a result, during the 2007 legislative session,
the Iowa Department of Transportation is seeking an
appropriation of $2 million per year for the first of five
years for the RRLGP. Our Web site has more information on
this initiative, which is called
Access Rail.
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Economic development and transportation – Moving Iowa
Forward Conference
On Jan. 18, 2007, the
Iowa
Department of Transportation and
Iowa Department of Economic
Development co-sponsored a conference in Des Moines on
transportation and economic development. The conference goal
was to identify how the rail and trucking transportation
systems interact, and how users can maximize the system to
grow their businesses and strengthen Iowa’s economy. The
keynote address by John Ficker, president of the National
Industrial Transportation League, discussed how expected
future freight transportation increases will challenge our
ability to move goods and materials in the volume and time
frames required.
Sessions throughout the
remainder of the conference highlighted specific issues and
provided some tools for understanding and managing the
movement of goods in Iowa. Presenters and panel members
included representatives of railroads, trucking companies,
shippers, logistics brokers and economic development groups.
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Steam engines in the heartland
 If you thought you were in some strange time warp when you
saw a steam engine rolling by the Davenport, Iowa, area in
mid-September, you can rest easy.
Railroad Development
Corporation (RDC) of Pittsburgh, owner of the
Iowa
Interstate Railroad, brought a pair of QJ type 2-10-2 steam
engines to Iowa from China.
Overhauled in China to meet Federal Railroad Administration
specifications, the engines were shipped to Houston, and
were transported on flatcars by the BNSF Railway to Iowa
where they were
reassembled and tested.
Train and nostalgia buffs enjoyed excursions featuring the
steam engines and refurbished passenger rail cars (furnished
by the rail group Friends of the 261) held in conjunction
with the RiverWay 2006 event. This event marked the 150th
anniversary of the original rail link of the eastern and
western United States with the opening of the first railroad
bridge over the Mississippi River. Each day approximately
450 passengers rode the 13-car passenger train on excursions
either to Homestead, Iowa, or Muscatine, Iowa, or to Bureau,
Ill., from Rock Island, Ill. Thousands more lined the route
for an opportunity to see a steam engine in action.
On Sept.18, the engines double headed a 35-car freight train
from Rock Island, Ill., to Iowa City, Iowa. RDC Chairman
Henry Posner III called it, “the first double-headed steam
revenue freight train in the Americas in the 21st century.”
The two engines hold a unique place in rail history. In
China, No. 7081 hauled the world’s last regularly scheduled
steam passenger train, and No. 6988 hauled the world’s last
regularly scheduled steam freight train. Posner hopes to
sell the engines to a tourist railroad to preserve these
examples of the last production steam engines. Posner
stated, “We didn’t see anyone else putting up their hands,
so this is why we are involved with these locomotives.”
More locomotive information
and photos from RDC
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Regional rail history on display
Rail fans and historians will learn more about the history
and impact of railroads in Linn County at The Carl and Mary
Koehler History Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. An exciting
new exhibit, All Aboard! Linn County and Its Railroads,
opened in November and runs through summer 2007. It features
interactive displays and artifacts, photographs, videos,
maps, and model trains. Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway
(CRANDIC), Alliant Energy Foundation, CN Railway, Iowa
Interstate Railroad, and Iowa Northern Railway are exhibit
sponsors. The History Center is open Tuesdays from 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m., and Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. Call 319-362-1501 for details.
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And more history…
Don Hofsommer, Professor in the Department of History at St.
Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minn., a native Iowan,
has published a book examining the railroads in Iowa
from their introduction to the present.
Steel Trails of Hawkeyeland: Iowa’s Railroad Experience
Author: Don Hofsommer
Published by
Indiana University Press, Copyright 2005
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Railroad Ties brings home award
Earlier this summer, this newsletter,
Iowa Railroad Ties,
was judged tops in its category in a competition at the
National Transportation Public Affairs Workshop. Entered in
the electronic newsletter category, the award was one of
three winners submitted by the Iowa DOT. Thanks to the
readers of this newsletter, one of the deciding factors in
the competition was the growing subscriber base. Help us
keep growing and spreading the word about Iowa’s rail
industry by recommending this publication to friends and
colleagues who may be interested.
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Union Pacific mainline rebuild
 Last summer, the
Union Pacific Railroad completed a
rebuild of the north mainline track between Carroll and
Boone, Iowa. The construction used an impressive Track
Renewal Train (TRT 909) that facilitates track replacement
in record time by installing rail and ties in a single pass.
As the massive train with specialized cars and equipment
moves down the track, old spikes and clips are pulled and
the existing rail is pushed aside to be later salvaged. The
old ties are removed and sent via conveyor to be picked up
by a crane. At the same time, new concrete ties and rail are
laid and the track fastened to the ties. Gantry cranes,
resembling giant spiders, constantly move atop the supply
cars filled with new concrete ties, picking up groups of
ties and moving them to the machine that drops the concrete
ties into place. Separate crews follow the TRT 909 to
salvage the old rail, pick up debris, weld joints, remove
and replace ballast, and align the track. Replacing nearly
4,000 ties in a single day, the result is a completely new,
impeccably groomed track.
View the
rebuild in photos
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Rail investment for ethanol
industry
With many new or planned ethanol plants on Union Pacific’s
(UP) Midwestern routes, the UP is investing $61.1 million in
track improvements in Iowa and Minnesota, and another
estimated $15 million in Nebraska, to support the growing
ethanol business. Improvements in Iowa include a new main
line and yards in Iowa Falls, an expanded yard and a
double-track connection between the two lines heading north
out of Mason City, yard work and switch improvements in
Eagle Grove, and a new yard and siding in Moorland. The UP’s
North Central division has added an additional construction
gang specifically to help with ethanol-related construction
projects.
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Kate Shelley bridge
to get a neighboring bridge
 Iowa's Boone County is due to get a new attraction when the
Union Pacific builds a new double-track bridge just north of
the present High Bridge. The High Bridge (often called the
Kate Shelley Memorial Bridge), at 2,685 feet long and 187
feet high, is termed the highest and longest double-track
railroad bridge in the world. The high bridge will remain,
with the new bridge built a short 90 feet away. The new
bridge will be a bit shorter at 2,550 feet, but just as high
as the original. Some of the spans will be reused from a
bridge removed a few miles south near Madrid with new spans
built to complete the distance.
The current bridge has become a bottleneck on a very busy
line due to the reduced speeds required on the bridge,
originally completed in 1900 and reinforced as late as 2002.
The new bridge will allow trains to move over the river at
higher speeds, improving the productivity of the line and
alleviating the delays. Completion is currently scheduled
for 2008.
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Ethanol reload and trading
facility under way in Manly on Iowa Northern Railway
Manly Terminal LLC announced plans for construction of an
independent ethanol and multi-product truck and train reload
and trading facility on the
Iowa Northern Railroad in Manly,
Iowa. The facility will feature over 20 million gallons of
liquid storage capability. The new terminal will allow
ethanol producers, buyers and traders to truck products to
the facility to stage and transfer the ethanol into outbound
railcars. This will allow ethanol from multiple producers to
be consolidated into unit
trains of ethanol for shipment to a destination. Iowa Northern's unit trains will provide lower transportation
costs and faster shipment delivery. Lee Kiewiet, president
of Manly Terminal said, “ …Manly, Iowa, was determined to be
the most desirable strategic location for this facility,
with great road access, an independent short-line railroad
with multiple connections and the geographical center of the
entire biofuels world.”
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Iowa
Northern Railway approved for $25.5 million Federal loan for
improvements
Iowa Northern Railway, located in northeastern Iowa is
receiving a $25.5 million dollar Railroad Rehabilitation and
Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan from the
Federal Railroad
Administration. The loan is part of the $55 million the
railroad expects to spend over the next six years to
rehabilitate much of its 163-mile line. The funds will be
used to upgrade track, construct new sidings and
rehabilitate rail yards. The improvements will allow the
railroad to accommodate heavier rail cars and move freight
more quickly, safely and efficiently.
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CRANDIC replaces much of
locomotive fleet
A fleet makeover is underway at the
Cedar Rapids and Iowa
City Railway Co. (CRANDIC). The majority of the old
locomotive fleet has been replaced with five
EMD SW1500s and one MP15. Coupled with the new engines will
be six slugs – cabless locomotives with traction motors.
Each slug is powered by the adjacent locomotive. CRANDIC
Master Mechanic Fred McCoy said, “While the new locomotives
have similar capabilities to the old, when coupled with a
slug, the pulling power is twice as much with no compromise
in speed."
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