Railroad Infrastructure Facing Critical Challenges

The disconnect between modern demands and outdated systems continues to grow.

American railroads are running 21st-century digital, AI-enabled, and sustainability-focused logistics networks on 19th-century analog infrastructure. With 40 percent of our freight moving by rail, this disconnect between modern operational demands and outdated foundational systems creates an expensive problem that grows more critical each year.

The numbers tell the story: BNSF committed 75 percent of their $3.8 billion capital plan to railroad maintenance this year, Union Pacific invested $3.4 billion, and Norfolk Southern allocated $2.2 billion. A sizable portion of that annual investment goes to replace ties made from wood. 

Wood components made perfect sense when we had endless old-growth forests and zero alternatives. But those days are gone, and the infrastructure that got us here won't get us where we need to go.

The Infrastructure-Operations Gap

Every Class 1 chief engineer I've talked to says the same thing: aging infrastructure consumes resources that could otherwise fund capacity expansion and technological advancement. Track infrastructure is one of the leading causes of unplanned outages, and failures are responsible for about 52 percent of derailments.

Once you factor in delay and labor costs, emergency crew deployment, and velocity metrics tanking while maintenance windows expand, the true cost becomes staggering.

The decision-makers know traditional materials aren't cutting it anymore. Consider the impacts wood components are having on tracks across our country. In harsh regions like the Southeastern U.S., where a combination of moisture, heat, and insects creates an ideal environment for decay, components intended to last for decades often fail within eight to 12 years. That's roughly 40 years of time and money you won't get back.

The industry needs solutions that match our ambitions, not constrain them. I saw this firsthand after speaking to the chief operating officer of a mid-Atlantic transit system. This is a light rail system that moves people to work every day in trains that are hundreds of feet long, not a heavy-haul freight rail system that moves coal several times a day in trains that are a mile long. 

The mid-Atlantic operator shared that they plan to replace wood ties every 10 years. The wood product cannot withstand environmental conditions, such as insects and moisture.  

Regional Vulnerabilities Accelerate Degradation

Geographic and climatic factors compound infrastructure challenges differently across regions. The Southeast faces accelerated degradation that turns multi-decade investments into single-decade problems. Similar patterns emerge in coastal regions, areas with extreme temperature variations, and zones with heavy precipitation.

These regional vulnerabilities create maintenance disparities that complicate everything from standardization efforts to operational planning. As a result, track infrastructure becomes one of the leading causes of unplanned outages, and failures trigger cascading effects through supply chains.

Here's the thing about disrupting a century-old industry: you can't do it by telling everyone they've been wrong for 200 years (because they haven't been). Wood infrastructure built the backbone of American commerce for two centuries. But getting to where we need to go requires something different.

Traditional materials face inherent limitations when subjected to modern freight volumes and environmental stresses. Add to that the depletion of old-growth timber, which forced reliance on faster-growing species that lack comparable durability, even with chemical treatment.

No chemical can preserve new-growth trees to match what nature provided through centuries of slow growth.

We already know manufacturing innovations can drive costs down through scale and optimization. Contemporary composite materials deliver a 50-year service life, compared to 10–15 years for traditional materials in challenging environments. The math becomes simple: components that last 50 years versus 10 make good business sense. 

Additionally, the supply chain becomes simpler when we use composite materials. No need to cut down a tree, move it a number of times, treat it, then move it to the point of use. A forest of plastic is outside the door of every community in America. With advanced manufacturing methods, upcycled plastic delivers the same tie every time, unlike wood, where every tree is different.  

Systems Integration Challenges

Modernizing railroad infrastructure isn't about wholesale replacement; it's about smart integration. Track systems comprise multiple interdependent elements that must work together seamlessly. Introducing advanced materials means ensuring compatibility with legacy components that will remain in service for decades.

Engineering teams validate performance across varying conditions, from load stress to environmental factors. Field testing demonstrates that modern composites maintain stability while interfacing with traditional infrastructure. This compatibility enables phased modernization that makes financial and operational sense.

Infrastructure reliability directly impacts everything from operating ratios to service metrics. Precision-scheduled railroading depends on predictable asset performance. Each infrastructure-related delay affects network velocity, equipment utilization, and crew productivity. These are the metrics that make or break quarterly earnings calls.

Infrastructure modernization also transforms maintenance workforce requirements. Advanced materials often need different installation techniques, but the operational benefits multiply: reduced emergency response frequency, improved scheduling predictability, and decreased exposure to hazardous conditions. Training programs must evolve while maintaining expertise in legacy systems, but the payoff comes through improved safety and operational efficiency.

The broader implications extend to American competitiveness. Efficient freight movement reduces embedded transportation costs in everything from manufactured goods to agricultural products. Given the projected 50 percent increase in freight volumes by 2050, infrastructure constraints limit the potential for capacity growth. 

This shift is happening at a time when our global competitors are modernizing their infrastructure at warp speed. It's no longer worth debating old vs. new when the stakes are actually about leading the global market or watching it pass us by.

For the railroad industry, modernization is now more economically compelling than it is technically feasible. And we've seen this before in other industries—solar panels, LED lighting, and electric vehicles all hit that moment where the economic argument became undeniable. 

Three things will make this work: 

1. Scale. The more modern, composite components we produce, the lower the unit costs.

2. Continued product development. Innovation keeps pushing costs down while engineers ensure performance. The industry will deliver a composite tie that matches the price of wood within two years. 

3. Validated trust. The industry needs suppliers who can deliver consistently to railroad performance specifications.

   
   

The convergence of material science advances and economic pressures creates our moment of truth. The world has run out of old-growth timber, and no chemical can preserve what we need from new-growth trees. 

Wood components got us here, and they deserve respect for that. But we need infrastructure that works better in problem areas, at prices that make sense today, not someday. Now that we know the answer, the true test lies in quickly transforming the industry at scale.

Article published by Industrial Equipment News