Benefits cascade from well-maintained track

Safety is the number one reason for well-maintained track, but operating efficiency and cuts in mechanical and fuel costs get a boost.

By Tom Judge, Engineering Editor

	Improved maintenance saves big bucks on track costs, especially with the heavier cars coming on line now and in the near future. Photo by Chuck Fox

For railroads, well-maintained track is the equivalent of the Elysian Fields. With well-maintained track, trains can get over the line faster, so railroads don't need as many locomotives and cars to haul the same tonnage. Crews don't get outlawed as often. Fuel tanks don't run as low. There's less wear and tear on equipment. Customer service improves as shipments can move faster.

Just what is well-maintained track? If the Federal Railroad Administration is not citing you, you have met the minimum standard of well-maintained track. But that's like waiting for the oil light to come on in your car before changing the oil. By that time, there's trouble.

What do the experts say?

"A properly thought-out track maintenance program should undoubtedly feed down to the bottom line of railway operations," says Roy Allen, president of Transportation Technology Center, Inc., Pueblo, Colo. "Benefits from a qualitative point of view are less derailment potential and lower train resistance. In some of the studies back in the 1980s, we proved that the more humps and bumps there are in the track, the more fuel you're going to use getting over them."

"It feeds all the way through the system," Allen says. "The trick is fully understanding the economics and then being able to translate those economics into a track maintenance program that makes sense. In many cases that track maintenance program is not a systemwide program, but is probably much more localized as to what you need to do when and where and how often."

Allen continues: "I think the main challenges in this area are first of all to understand those economics and, secondly-certainly an ongoing part of our research program-to reduce maintenance costs by having more productive and more efficient track maintenance methods and/or by better designs of materials in the track structure itself so it doesn't actually require as much maintenance. I think those are two challenges that the supply industry and the railroads have been facing for many years and have made great strides toward overcoming, but there are still considerable gains to be made in those areas, in my opinion."

Saving big dollars
In recent decades, m/w productivity has improved enormously.

"Four factors have historically governed improvements in railroad track maintenance-of-way costs: economics of traffic density, technological improvements, network rationalization, and equipment productivity," said Jeffrey D. Chapman and Carl D. Martland in a study published in Transportation Quarterly. "[Our] study demonstrates that the U.S. Class I railroad freight industry is saving $7 billion annually in m/w expenditures due to advancements in track productivity from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s. M/w expenses over this time increased 6% (in constant dollars), but costs per revenue ton-mile dropped 39% and costs per gross ton-mile declined 28%.

"All of this occurred during a period where the demands on track structure increased dramatically; revenue traffic volume increased 73% and the weight of the average freight carload increased 31%. By using mathematical extrapolation techniques to project cost from historical data, estimates of the savings originating from the four factors were calculated. The annual productivity savings due to density economics, advancements in track technology, rationalization, and equipment productivity are approximately $2.6 billion, $1.8 billion, $1.5 billion, and $1.3 billion per year, respectively."

Ted Selig, president and CEO of Optram, Inc., says: "Well-maintained track is track that supports ontime revenue traffic on a continuing basis. Thus, the maintenance requirements vary with the traffic demands."

"Well-maintained track requires proactive rather than reactive maintenance," Selig points out. "Fundamental to proactive systems is immediately accessible and accurate information. Information includes condition, work performed, and traffic correlated with track charts. A history of these items is also very important in order to define trends. The correlation of this information supports routine planning of maintenance and a critical tool in resolving root cause of chronic problem spots."

Optram's ORIM system was developed for achieving well-maintained track, he notes. ORIM is a visual information system designed for railroad infrastructure maintenance.

"This analysis system integrates track layout, inventory, condition, and maintenance work at any location along a track corridor," Selig says. "Its ability to display a combined view of maintenance management information enables managers and engineers to correlate symptoms and view factors that cause track deterioration, thereby enabling rapid and precise corrective action. Having this information system allows you to focus your maintenance activities more precisely, resulting in improved track availability and more cost-effective use of maintenance funds."

"With today's smaller staffs and limited track time, how can railroads determine if track is well-maintained or not?" Selig asks. "Many different measurements can be used to define well-maintained track. Systems that monitor track condition must minimize the need for human intervention. Our railroad customers do not have staff time for information entry and updates."

Optram projects that, by using the ORIM system, railroads can save twice as much annually as the $7 billion cited in the Chapman and Martland study.

Improved maintenance saves big bucks on track costs, especially with the heavier cars coming on line now and in the near future.

TTCI has been conducting tests related to the introduction of heavier axle loads. Some of the results illustrate the benefits offered by well-maintained track.

In a report on the studies, TTCI states: "As the HAL studies progressed from Phase I to Phase II, considerable improvements in track and vehicle components reduced the costs of the base-case operations as well as the HAL option."

Test results on coal lines in both the East and the West showed that using better components in Phase II provided a 7-8% reduction in base costs for track, with most of the improvement coming in maintenance rather than capital costs. In Phase III, the use of better equipment provided another 8-10% improvements in track costs, with equivalent savings in both maintenance and capital costs.

The savings from Phase I to Phase II annually amounted to more than $3,800 per mile in the West and nearly $1,600 per mile in the East.

In 1998, U.S. Class I railroads operated 56,200 track-miles with at least 20 mgt. TTCI says: "We estimated that this network is equivalent (in terms of total ton-miles) to 10,500 miles of track represented by the 80-mgt case and 46,200 miles of track represented by the 30-mgt case. If this entire network were upgraded to the level of the Phase II base case, then the annual savings from track improvements would amount to approximately $100 million."

Return on investment
Well-maintained track is an expensive proposition. But is it cost-effective? Oh, yes.

Recently, Allan Zarembski and Sunil Kondapalli of ZETA-TECH Associates published a paper with figures on the return-on-investment of just one phase of good track maintenance: shoulder ballast cleaning. Ballast fouling can impede drainage and reduce the strength and load-carrying capacity of the ballast layer. Zarembski and Kondapalli defined the effect of fouling of the ballast shoulder as follows:

Loss of total ballast section effectiveness.
Accelerated loss of alignment.
Accelerated loss of profile.
Greater potential for buckling.
Increase in ballast compaction requirements.
Increased ballast requirements.
Loss of sterility and resulting vegetation growth.

"By looking at the effects of ballast fouling, it is possible to determine the economic benefits of ballast shoulder cleaning," they said. "Ballast fouling and the resulting loss of ballast section effectiveness, accelerated by loss of alignment and accelerated loss of profile, all contributed to an increase in track geometry maintenance, i.e., surfacing. These effects are interconnected and can result in a worst-case scenario in surfacing cycles of up to 56%. Based on a conservative reduction in a surfacing cycles of 25%, there will be an increase or extension of surfacing cycles of 33% when fouled shoulders are cleaned."

Cleaning the ballast shoulder can also extend the undercutting cycle. Zarembski and Kondapalli said, "The shoulder cleaning performed in year ten in a 20-year cycle results in a postponement of the next undercutting cycle from year 20 to year 22.5. The equivalent present worth of the 21-year cycle is $4,459 per mile (i.e., the equivalent present worth of a $30,000 undercutting every 20 years). The equivalent present worth of the 22.5-year cycle is $3,514 per mile. Hence the net benefit is $945 per mile. Noting that shoulder cleaning occurs in year 10, the equivalent present worth of the shoulder cleaning is $810. The corresponding return on investment is 17%."

When ballast is fouled, lateral ballast resistance is reduced, which, in turn, leads to an increase in the quantity of ballast required to maintain the ballast section lateral strength.

To compensate for a loss of lateral resistance of 30%, an additional 176 cubic yard of ballast is required per mile. For ballast with a density of one ton per cubic yard, a total of 176 tons is required. Thus the cost of additional ballast is $2,464 per mile, not including the cost of installation.

The cost of shoulder ballast cleaning is $2,100 per mile, giving an ROI of 17%. "Combining the above benefits for ballast shoulder cleaning produces a range of total benefit that can approach and even exceed 100%, depending on track conditions," Zarembski and Kondapalli said. "While this benefit varies significantly as a function of track conditions and maintenance practices, in general, for main line track conditions, it can be seen that ballast shoulder cleaning does pay for itself in terms of reduced maintenance costs and improved performance."

Well-maintained track makes sense in terms of safety, efficiency, and economics. It doesn't require gold-plating to bring benefits across the board to any size railroad.