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If 60 per cent of benefit associated with the upgrading of a rail line, as well as ancillary facilities, accrues to the owner, the owner should fund 60 per cent of the cost.  The incremental user (passenger rail), whether it is a private investor or the government, should fund the balance.  All kinds of arguments could be put forth why the incremental user should pay a higher percentage of the cost of the upgrade.  Or perhaps all of it!  If I were a railroad executive, I would argue that the upgrade is being made only because of the pending implementation of passenger rail and, therefore, the railroad should not pay any of the upgrade costs, since it did not need the upgrade, even though it would likely benefit from the improved right of way capabilities.  And there are probably a hundred other arguments that could be thrown into the pot.  Clearly, there is a lot of bridge traffic on the Sunset route, as well as the T&P from Sierra Blanca to Fort Worth, etc.  Midland, Texas, has become a pretty good train watching spot.  To what level it will build and how long it will last is problematic.  Panama is upgrading the Panama Canal.  It will be able to handle many of the larger container ships that must dock at a U.S. or Mexican west coast port.  Texas is planning to improve its Houston and Corpus Christi port facilities.  They plan to get some of the traffic that will eventually go through the canal as opposed to berthing on the west cost.  Dallas is building an inland port (oxymoron) south of town.  It supposedly will be a major distribution center.  Thus, instead of shipping the containers from the west cost to the east cost of the U.S., or points in between, many of them could go to the east coast of Texas, be off loaded, and shipped by rail to Dallas, for local as well as regional distribution.To further complicate the matter, some economists believe that engineering it in the U.S.; building it in Asia; and shipping it to North America may not work in a high cost energy market.  If this is true, it raises an interesting question.  What happens to the bridge traffic if a significant number of North American manufacturers decided to relocate their manufacturing to Mexico or Central America?  It could change the patterns for rail traffic in the U.S., which could have a major impact on the upgrade of the Sunset route.   No easy decisions for those who must plan for rail capacity!
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