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Rehabilitation and maintenance are black holes. You can throw large amounts of $$ at them for a long time and still many railfans will scream "deferred maintenance". Sorry, most of us in the industry have at least an idea of what we need to do to maintain to certain standards. It may not be to your standards at any particular moment. Today's mainline with mud pumping or a few extra bad ties is tomorrows tie project. Contractors I know have all their people working now and are hiring as many as they can to get work done this season. The industry has survived large Class 1 bankruptcies before, several at a time. Bridges are a huge problem, but at least most railroad bridges were built to last. The small number of bridge failures on railroads are a testament to their engineering and construction. Money is needed and the governement should consider grants to railroads as was done in the past (for example the grants under both the 3R and 4R acts). The kind of money you are talking about should be public in nature. Requiring rebuilding of existing infrastructure would likely bankrupt all the railroads, and given the inequities with other transportation modes such public funding is both appropriate and necessary. Oh, and the quips are nifty, but they mean nothing... LC [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by tomubee LC: I would be remiss if I stated that all class ones have embarked on programs of deferred maintenance, but I do feel that if one or more of the class ones go belly up all of the industry will be adversely affected. I am bothered though when I see a carrier divert monies from maintenance and rehabilitation to cover other corporate expenses. This is not a good situation when you consider that 60 percent of mainline bridges in North America were built before 1940. This may not be taking place where you operate, but nonetheless it is occurring in some areas. As one who depends on this industry for a living, I am concerned about its future. I don't think it's helpful to whistle past the graveyard. [/quote]
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