Will there be a need for rail expansion in the West?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Look at a RR map of the US. East of the Mississippi it looks like a plate full of spaghetti. West looks like a few stray worms.

Where is much of the natural resources in the U.S. such as coal, ores, timber, and other heavy materials? West.

Yet Alaska remains isolated by rail and there are thousands of square miles of wilderness without rail access.

THe key, imo is federal lands and the willingness to open them up to development; balanced with concerns for environmentalists.

While I’m a green person, I would appreciate seeing fewer stray worms and more spaghetti out West.

David Vergun

2

Rail expansion in the West is highly unlikely since there isn’t that much justification for it. There may be a few long spurs here and there to serve a mining area but that would be about it.

A direct rail link to Alaska has been discussed elsewhere but is equally unlikely.

3

DM&E , Northwestern Colorado/ Vernal Utah , Star Lake Railroad

It is happening, albeit slowly. Regulations (Some good, some really dumb) and lack of population density plus the trucking industry owning congress does not help.

4

Expansion of rail anywhere is an expensive process. It will depend upon raw materials, willingness of government and the markets to invest in such expansion and the ability to use condemnation to obtain the necessary property in an economical manner. For example, the Alaska Railroad connection through Canada would require a significant investment particularly from government sources. The DM&E will depend upon private funding and government funding. As we can all see the DM&E hasn’t gone too far on private equity alone. Typically building railroads is a very expensive affair, involving insolvency in many cases, little wonder that private investors are leery of the idea.

LC

5

Rail expands to where there is profitable business opportunities.

Rail service to the Powder River Basin was next to non-existant until the coal mine started to produce in volume…now the lines serving the Power River Basin are all high tonnage lines with numerous branches to serve the various mines.

Where economic opportunites dry up…rail lines get abandoned.

Where rail lines exist is purely a matter of economics. Railroads do not ascribe to the ‘Field of Dreams’ theory…Build it and they will come.

6

There are only so many mountain passes suitable to build a railroad through. In an east west direction at the Continental Divide there is Marias Pass (Great Northern), near Butte (Northern Pacific), Sherman Hill (Union Pacific), Moffett Tunnel (Denver and Rio Grande), near Grants (Santa Fe) and near Lordsburg (Southern Pacific)… Some would not include Moffett Tunnel as a main line railroad…

Recently the feds and the city of Los Angeles built a double rail line from downtown to Long Beach… Compared to Illinois, California does not have anywhere near the mileage of railroads… and it shows when Amtrak’s Sunset Limited is late arriving into LA… outside of a 3-3 hour window, the ports open, and the trains leave LA…no matter what’s coming in the other direction…

7

I would say yes more people are moving to the west and South soon the railroads or other forms of transport will need to catch up.

8

I would say that the main constraint to adding capacity is getting capital rather than geography. Before considering new routes, take a look at the existing ones. The Sunset route is mostly single track. Even the Transcon has single track bottlenecks in several strategic locations. I’m sure both UP and BNSF would love to have both routes double tracked. Merely adding a second track costs big bucks that they just don’t have. Investors just won’t fork over the cash because returns for rail stocks historically have been mediocre. Also it’s not like there’s potential business online to justify the added track. Then there’s your friendly US Gov, which built the Interstate highway system, which competes so efficiently with both rail and air.

9

Perhaps the expansion into the West of an Eastern railroad? There are only two Western giants (BNSF & UP), and there’s enough room for another railroad. It would make it harder for UP to complete their monopoly of the West.

10

VistaDome Passenger 1,
I would like to see additional RR construction in the west but it is highly unlikely. The cities are sprawling and the only way one can realistically get around is by auto. For example, San Diego has greatly expanded over the years, and it is adding to its light rail network. But I see no way that rail will ever extend to the Rancho Carmel area (20 miles from downtown).
It would be virtually impossible to get a new “heavy” rail line built, as there are no rights of way set aside for this.