Hi all,
Maybe this is just too complex to discuss in a forum, or maybe its a simple case of “what ever is negotiated”.
Regardless I’d like to know, how to owners of track charge another RR for use of their track?
Is a toll based structure based on number of cars and approx weights? Is it based on a flat fee gets you unlimited access??? Revenue sharing?
It is a case of “whatever is negotiated”, but there are some “usual” ways it’s done. If a fgn carrier runs their trains on your tracks, you usually charge them a rate per car mile. When NS operates on the NEC, they pay Amtrak per car mile and even more if the car is over 286,000 lbs. The goofy thing about this arrangement is that NS has to calculate the car miles for Amtrak!
When Amtrak runs an unscheduled train, they pay the tenant RR a rate per train mile, regardless of train size.
In a terminal area, you might just pay a flat fee to have the car switched for you. The Belt RR in Chicago charges a flat fee to hump a car.
Don:
Do you have any idea of wht the Belt charges to hump a car?
ed
Zeta Tech has a proprietary software called “Trackshare” for determining shared use or open access charges of rail lines:
http://www.zetatech.com/CORPQIII44.htm
According to the link, at least 6 North American railroads have used Trackshare at one time or another.
When you have shared usage of the tracks, what prevents the owner from giving priority to its own trains? or is that even an issue?
This is somewhat related, but I have heard that Amtrak charges one dollar a mile to pull a private railroad car behind its train. Not sure if this is really true or not. I am sure there are some switching charges also.
Probably depends a lot on the terms of the agreement, and some of those agreements go back a ways.
I think I have a related question. I travel past Sunnyside Yards twice daily. For periods of time, private coaches sit in the yard. Sometimes they leave for a while but inevitably they return. What are the owners charged for a service like that?
I think the Belt charges about $50/car - but I could be all wet.
It can be a real issue, especially when the two roads involved are tough competitors. A good example is MP and Cotton Belt out of St. Louis to Paragould, AR (I think). The line is owned by SSW north of Illmo, MO (where the line crosses the Mississippi River) and by MP south of that point, with the other road having the trackage rights. Tales have been told of all sorts of interesting reciprocity when the owner road gave priority to its own trains over the hot train (like the BSM) of the other road.
in a number of cases, the owner railroad had significantly fewer trains than the
second railroad using that owner’s track. yet the track was dispatched by the owner
railroad. the rock island from brinkley ark into memphis was outnumbered by the
cotton belt. the MKT from dallas to waxahachie texas was greatly outnumbered by
trains of the joint BRI [burlington-rock island].
theo sommerkamp crosstie@wowway.com
The UP suffers the same problem trying to get through Spokane Washington via BNSF. When the EXPO '74 promoters pushed UP to get it’s tracks out of downtown Spokane, UP managed to get a trackage rights arrangement with BN from Fish Lake west of Spokane to Napa(?) Street east of downtown, then subsequently tore out it’s own tracks, including the “High Bridge” over the Spokane River and the magnificant Union Station. Of course, the mentality of tearing out “excess” trackage was a rampant philosophy in the 1970’s, but you know UP is kicking itself these days for that decision. UP’s trains are often holed up at Fish Lake for hours on end, trying to get permission to enter BNSF trackage for the few miles through Spokane. And it isn’t like the BNSF tracks are single track with limited capacity, rather there are two and three sets of tracks all the way through Spokane.
UP should seriously consider putting together a bypass using older abandoned ROW’s to the south of Spokane.
The B&O paid the P&LE 1/2 of the amount saved by using P&LE tracks instead of the B&O’s steeper route between Pittsburgh, Pa. and New Castle, Pa.
I remember a C-SPAN program on Amtrak’s future a year or so ago in which the owner of the Rocky Mountaineer claimed he paid about 10 times what Amtrak does to clear a train. He didn’t give the actual numbers, but it made me wonder if Amtrak’s legacy “costs-avoided” payment scheme to the freight roads is a bad idea; if we really want passengers to move quickly, maybe we should pay what it takes.
That’s along the lines of what also killed the Montana Rockies tour train - the rate they got from Montana Rail Link was low enough that the train could run on their rails at a profit, but they couldn’t get access rights for the last few miles into Spokane from BNSF at a low enough rate so they could be based in a larger population market.
sommerkamp… I thought that MKT had went out of business…guess I was wrong…