Savings to Gov. DOT by sponsering Free Rail spursand sidings for industry?

[Anonymous]

In NY we have a program that pays for 50% of the cost of a railroad spur. New Railroad spurs can run up tp 100,000.00.
Asuming that the industry moves 300 to 500 cars a year how much does that save NYDOT on highway maintance

[Anonymous]

I guess the qustion would be how much damage does a fully laden truck do to our nations highways? Considering that one railroad car holds 2.5 to 3 truck loads

[mudchicken]

Never heard of a team track. How sad.

[kenneo]

Team tracks went the way of the highway. Don't get me started on why - I get a bit venomus - poison type.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Subsidizing the initial cost of the spur is one thing. How much does the state contribute for the continued maintenance of said spur, especially for a business that averages two cars per day or less?

In return for such a subsidy, is the business expected to ship a certain amount of traffic by rail?

[nslakediv]

the roads are designed to handle heavy truck traffic, so in respect if you try to lower the cost to the states by not building the roads so strong you would still have same maintainence from regular cars, trucks, vans and SUV's, correct? where is the cost savings?

[oltmannd]

There was a GAO report years ago that stated that a truck does 97x the wear and tear that a car does.

That being the case, restricting highways to cars only would reduce the maintenance significantly. Consider the frequecny of resurfacing alone.

Proof of this can be seen on Long Island. Parkways were built for and restricted to auto traffic only. Most were constructed in the 1930s and weren't resurfaced until the 1970s.

Interstate 80 across PA was built to truck standards and had to be completely rebuilt less than 20 years after construction. I-70 from the PA turnpike to WV border had it's right lane competely ruined by heavy truck while the left lane remained in decent shape in about 20 years of use, to the point the trucks started cruising in the left lane exclusively.

In the long run, a better answer than state subsidized spurs would be intermodal conversion.

[spbed]

Sorry to say their are not enough smart people in government to understand the concept or it just not enough of priority for them to take action. Usually the only way things get done is with a hue & cry by us folks out their sorry to say. [:D]

QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd

There was a GAO report years ago that stated that a truck does 97x the wear and tear that a car does.

That being the case, restricting highways to cars only would reduce the maintenance significantly. Consider the frequecny of resurfacing alone.

Proof of this can be seen on Long Island. Parkways were built for and restricted to auto traffic only. Most were constructed in the 1930s and weren't resurfaced until the 1970s.

Interstate 80 across PA was built to truck standards and had to be completely rebuilt less than 20 years after construction. I-70 from the PA turnpike to WV border had it's right lane competely ruined by heavy truck while the left lane remained in decent shape in about 20 years of use, to the point the trucks started cruising in the left lane exclusively.

In the long run, a better answer than state subsidized spurs would be intermodal conversion.

[Anonymous]

Well as far as intermodal NS reply to that for Jamestown NY is that there is a intermodal facilty in Buffalo 60 miles away. The deal for the sidings is that they have to prove to the state that having the siding will create or save jobs. That by not having railroad accces they will have to move elsewhere. Seing that there are not to many industrys left anymore that are completely rail dependent, you have to be pretty liberal about saving jobs. The inony is that since a good chunk of highway money comes from the feds its looked as "free" money to create jobs for highway construction workers. So here is the argument that will have to be made-
" If installing railroad sidings on all industrys that need them in Chautaqua county
New York will save 5,000 truck moves a year to and from Buffalo NY in a 60 mile raduis there for how much money per mile are we saving-5,000 X 60 X damage done to roads divdied by cost to re -build 60 miles of highway every 20 years?