Media

Rail’s Private Investments Enhance Safety, Efficiency


Private rail investments are a key economic driver supporting consumers, manufacturers and the state’s thriving intermodal business.


By Jeffrey F. Holliday
State Director, Go Rail

The National Retail Federation recently announced that it expects holiday retail sales to increase by 4 percent this year, reaching some $682 billion. A positive indicator of the strengthening economy, this increased demand will require an efficient, reliable transportation network to deliver for consumers. America’s freight railroads — leading the infrastructure pack — expect to spend $22 billion, or $60 million per day, on their network this year alone.

For Arkansas, which houses 23 freight railroads operating 2,417 miles of track, these private rail investments are a key economic driver supporting consumers, manufacturers and the state’s thriving intermodal business.

But rail spending also supports safety—an all-year, round-the-clock priority for railroads. According to statistics from the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration, 2016 was the safest year on record for freight railroads. Last year not only marked the lowest train accident rate on record, but likewise the lowest derailment rate, which declined 10 percent from 2015. These gains are not anomalies, but examples of how steady investment pays safety dividends. Since railroads were economically deregulated in 1980, they have spent over $635 billion and the train accident rate has decreased 79 percent.

Railroads also advance safety through innovation. State-of-the-art technologies like big data, drones and ultrasound technology aim to identify problems before they happen, making a safe network even safer. In Pueblo, Colorado, America’s Class I railroads jointly operate the world’s leading rail research and testing facility, the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. or TTCI. Many of rail’s new technologies — like the world’s first laser-based rail inspection system, or on-board computer systems that analyze track geometry — are developed and tested at TTCI.

Another example of rail innovation, a mobile app called AskRail is making it easier for first responders to respond to a rail emergency by providing them with immediate access to accurate, timely data about what type of hazardous materials a railcar is carrying. Thousands of qualified emergency responders from around the country have already downloaded the app.

Whether delivering for holiday customers or Arkansas businesses, railroads are investing what it takes to provide seamless and safe connections for the communities they operate in.

Rainwater, Hold & Sexton Injury Lawyers 800-434-4800