Assessment of Fuel Economy Technologies for Medium and Heavy ...

Potential for Government Promotion: The government could promote rail diversion through the
promotion of freight villages; aiding in the siting of intermodal terminals, transload facilities, and
bulk storage facilities; expand market reach for regional railroads; and the continued
improvement in rail infrastructure, including signal, track, bridge, terminal, and clearance
upgrades.
While freight rail infrastructure investment has traditionally been left to the private sector, the
Federal government as well as a number of states have increasingly become involved in this issue
for purposes of economic development and road traffic reduction. There are several state and
Federal programs that will fund rail improvement to help bridge the gap between investment
needs and the availability of private capital. The Federal-aid highway funding program also
allows some flexibility in using funds for non-highway freight transportation projects.
To date most of the easier rail capacity improvement projects have been built, leaving primarily
the more difficult and expensive projects. In addition to being expensive, many of the remaining
critical needs are set in urban environments where there are substantial constraints on
right-of-way as well as added costs for mitigation of impacts. These barriers will pose challenges
to large-scale improvements in freight infrastructure sufficient to leverage significant truck-rail
mode shift.
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