CEO PERSPECTIVES, RAILWAY AGE APRIL 2025 ISSUE: Which traffic segment or segments offer top-line growth potential? Every single segment, and every single customer! There are more than 600 short lines across the country, and in total they haul almost every commodity one can think of. In particular, the agriculture, energy, industrial and manufacturing sectors are reliant upon short line service.
But the daily reality for most short lines is that it’s not about what segments are hot or where the global macro economy is heading—it’s instead about how we add one more carload from an existing customer, or secure one more customer shipping on the railroad. Each interaction with a shipper is an opportunity to help them win in their markets, to earn their trust, and to grow with them.
When we do that, every day across every short line railroad with every shipper, the industry-wide results speak for themselves. When our shippers win, we win, our railroad partners win, and the country wins.
We’re adding value to the global, multi-modal supply chain. Short lines are a critical piece of the interconnected freight rail network, serving as the on and off ramps for thousands of customers. Without short line service, many communities would be effectively cut off from the economy due to a lack of competitive and cost-efficient freight transportation options to access markets.
More than one in every five carloads on the U.S. freight rail network are handled at origin or destination by a short line. Whether customers are directly served by rail or access a short line through transloading, we are focused on helping those customers utilize the world’s premier freight rail network to move their goods between farms and factories and the broader U.S. and world markets.
While we rely on our Class I partners and ports for that full domestic and global access, short lines are the face of railroading for their customers, particularly in small town and rural America. We are focused on attracting new customers to rail, and keeping existing ones, by providing flexible, friendly, customized service. Whatever the question is, the answer is yes, and we’ll work to deliver that commitment every day.
Moving freight by rail not only meets the needs of customers for efficient access to markets, but also benefits local communities by reducing large truck traffic and thus reducing congestion, emissions, and taxpayer-funded road maintenance.
In short, without a short line, shippers would be short on options for freight transportation and communities would be short on experiencing the benefits of freight rail.
Our most significant safety improvement achievements: The top two causes of derailments on short lines are straightforward—broken rail and wide gauge, which basically means worn out track and ties. The way to address those problems is straightforward: Invest in the infrastructure.
However, given the origin story of many short lines, starting as unprofitable branch line spinoffs with years of deferred maintenance and not much in the way of traffic density, it is a huge challenge for short lines to generate enough revenue to invest as much as they’d like and to bring their rail up to modern track standards.
Short lines hustle every day to generate the funds to make these investments—whether by earning one more carload of volume from a shipper or managing expenses by extending the life on an older locomotive by another year. Luckily, the federal government has long seen the benefit of maintaining the freight rail access that short lines provide and has been willing to invest funds alongside us into short line infrastructure.
The two main mechanisms of that support are the 45G short line railroad track maintenance tax credit and the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program. Both programs have been remarkably successful at helping short lines invest to modernize their infrastructure, grow traffic and improve safety. In addition, the Short Line Training Center has enabled hundreds of railroaders to be trained, some remotely via an online learning management system and some with locomotive simulators and mobile classrooms delivered to the railroad.
The Short Line Safety Institute (SLSI) has entered its 10th year of operations and assists short line railroads in elevating their safety culture. Dozens and dozens of short lines have taken advantage of SLSI-conducted Safety Culture Assessments, and those that have scheduled a follow up assessment have shown measurable safety improvements.
The SLSI also offers a robust hazardous materials training program to short line railroads and training for local area first responders, and classes on Leadership Development and Structured Problem Solving.
As a result of the commitment of short lines to continuously improve safety, last year 340 short lines earned the ASLRRA’s Jake Safety Award with distinction, which recognizes short lines with zero FRA-reportable injuries for a full year period.
On May 7, 2025 the railroad industry will go to Washington for our annual Railroad Day on Capitol Hill, where we will advocate aggressively for these crucial programs. We will educate lawmakers on the benefit rail provides to communities across America, and how our elected officials can assist the industry. Join us! See: www.aslrra.org/railroadday.
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