(The following article by Brad Fjeldheim was posted on the Billings Gazette website on July 8.)
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Montana Rail Link crews replacing 6.3 miles of track between Billings and Laurel this week were joined Thursday by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
The $3.8 million project is funded by federal tax credits made possible with the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, which passed in October. Baucus said he pushed to add the tax credit to the act after MRL administrators said they needed to upgrade their lines to be competitive.
“The smaller short lines don’t have near as much capital as the bigger lines,” Baucus said. “It means a lot to me, frankly, to get out here and see how the tax credit works.”
At least 69 MRL employees have been tearing up 39-foot sections of jointed rail that have been in place since the late 1940s and laying down 1,680-foot pieces of continuous welded rail. The continuous rail will allow MRL trains to increase their speed from 25 to 60 mph, making the company more efficient, said MRL President Tom Walsh.
The legislation provides the smaller Class II and Class III railroads with 50 cents in federal tax credit for every dollar spent on track maintenance and has allowed MRL, a Class II railroad, to boost its engineering department capital budget to $16.7 million.
“This is building for the future,” said Walsh. Class I railroads, like Burlington Northern Santa Fe, are moving to heavier cars, and new technology is allowing faster travel.
The crews started just west of Billings and are working toward Laurel.
The only tool for some crew members is a sledgehammer, but others operate one of the 22 yellow machines that are pulling spikes, straightening the 38-ton rails and magnetically picking up old iron plates, spikes and track anchors.
The spare parts left over from the replacement will be shipped to Laurel and salvaged, said Allan Knutson, the railroad’s assistant road master in Laurel.
All of the old rails are being sent to Laurel, where they are welded into the new continuous rails that will be used on MRL track in other parts of Montana, Knutson said.
The crews are replacing one track at a time and should finish locally by the end of next week. But the rail upgrades will continue down the line, said Randy Gustin, MRL’s assistant chief engineer.
“The crew will just keep working their way across the state until they hit Sandpoint, Idaho,” Gustin said.
Montana Rail Link, which is owned by the Missoula-based Washington Group, was originally part of the transcontinental railroad completed by Northern Pacific in 1883. In 1970, Northern Pacific merged with four other northwestern area railroads to form Burlington Northern.
Montana Rail Link was a local branch route for the company. The federal government has encouraged the small lines to maintain operation, and MRL took over Montana’s southern route in 1987.
“We don’t ever see ourselves as a BNSF,” Walsh said. “We just need to have our rail to a level that’s competitive with their systems.”
The competitors Walsh is most concerned about are the trucks hauling cargo down the interstate. The tax credit will improve the company’s ability to better serve its customers, he said.
“The only thing we sell is services,” Walsh said.