Four short-line railroads in Kansas save that state $49 million a year in road repair costs. The smallest of those saves the state almost $2.5 million annually.
I bring these statistics up because Colorado may be losing the last remnants of the Towner Line forever. The VS Railroad is in the process of buying the line, and there is evidence that they are buying it solely to tear up the tracks and sell them for scrap. VS has already stopped operating the line west of Eads which has caused Kiowa County to lose $6.5 million over the last three years. And the steel in the rails is worth more than what VS is paying for the line, so they may have little incentive to keep the line intact.
It also goes without saying that trucks do not have to fully fund the roads they go over, unlike rail companies which must fully fund their basic infrastucture.
But here is the thing, if we cannot afford to maintain this rail line, how are we going to find the extra money to fund our roads? How are we going to replace the tax revenues lost from the industry that we lose? What happens if there are not enough trucks to get our grain to market? Colorado needs to be expanding the ways that we move our food to market, not reducing them.
(I would like to thank Evan Stair of Passenger Rail Kansas for the Kansas stats. A variety of studies, but unfortunately not the one that provided my statistic, can be reached by going to the KDOT home page and clicking where it says "Rail Maps & Publications".)
No comments:
Post a Comment