Known as the “Waste Line Express,” the train has hauled trash from Roanoke along a 4.5-mile spur to the Smith Gap Landfill for the past 25 years. Now, though, the Roanoke Times reports that authorities at the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority say it will be cheaper over the long run to convert the rail line to a roadbed and use trucks to haul the trash instead. That conversion will cost $25 million, but will save an estimated $800,000 each year.
“Trucking was the best option, just from an economic standpoint,” Resource Authority CEO Dan Miles told the Times. “Both parties have mutually worked to see things out in, I guess, as good of a manner as they possibly can.”
The Times reports that Norfolk Southern declined to offer a comment for the story, but reported that the Resource Authority began exploring trucks as an alternative when Norfolk Southern raised its rates when the Waste Line contract came up for renewal in 2016. The additional $800,000 requested by the railroad would have increased the Resource Authority’s operating budget by six percent and passed on a charge of at least two dollar to every customer. Those additional expenses prompted the Resource Authority board committed to buying land that would permit them to build a service road to the landfill’s tipping point.
As many as 50 tractor trailer deliveries will replace the Waste Line Express each day.
its not just 4.5 miles for the trucks , they will have to get loaded from transfer stations from all over the state and then drive to the dump , were talking hundreds of miles . I see it here in new York trash trucks traveling lots of miles trucks on the n.y. state thruway from down state to Syracuse N.Y. This will probably happen in VA. The people better think about the this !
NS priced itself out of the market on this one.They do not care about keeping trucks off the road & thus less traffic.I guess there are bigger fish to fry in Jacksonville
The 800k was on top of the existing rate, which was not given. Suppose it was 2 mill a case could be made they could do it for 2.8 mill. A short line spin off is way to go if not a lot of bridges and track is good.
Just paying for the capital costs (assuming that includes buying the land, removing the existing tracks and infrastructure, grading and paving the road, buying trucks, etc.) will take over 31 years, assuming that the cost of money is also included in the 25 mill. Does it include 3 to 5 complete replacements of the trucks? What are the operating costs? Are they included in the 25 mill? What are they going to do in the interim, while the ROW is being converted from rail to road? (or did I misread that they were going to pave the rail ROW?)
David Schmidt has the right idea!
The math isn’t working out here. Maybe it would if you included the money for the bribes payed out to the board members for the switch…
This is the perfect opportunity for a short line railroad. I can see why the NS would want to drop the service. Not
Enough revenue to cover their costs which are high. A short line will not have those high cost and would probably make a decent profit and most likely provide better service.
Where is the Authority getting the $25 million? The payback is awful and not an investment grade project. The numbers don’t add up. Most politicians are screwed up and this seems a screwed up deal. Should ask the dummies from the Authority too, how green it is to switch from rail to trucks anyway.
How short sighted can you get? Where are all of the environmentalists on this one? You will go from two people sitting inside two or three engines to 50 people sitting inside 50 engines?!?!?!?!
Between healthcare, sick days, breakdowns, exhaust fumes, etc… I am amazed they think this will work..
Short term economics will be lost over the long term.
Re-negotiate…
Environmentally this is not sound reasoning, no matter what the cost short or long term.
The math sure sounds goofy, 50 trucks a day is a lot of man hours.
With apologies to W. Shakespeare and oxymoron purists, “something stinks to high heaven” regarding this fishy deal.
Wow. Spending a permanent $25 million to save a temporary $800k a year makes sense??
And let’s not forget how much bigger of a carbon footprint 50 truck trips a day would be versus one train pulled by one locomotive a day.
Seems to me and I could be wrong that for 30 million I could buy a train and operate it myself over the existing infrastructure. Since its trash the cars need not be new or for that matter the locomotive.
Original article on this:
“The Waste Line express”
Norfolk Southern carries trash out of Roanoke, Virginia
by Biesenbach, Betsy
from Trains June 1996 p. 62
(keywords: commodity NS operation trash )
The payback just does not work.
50 trucks a day on a short route like this means 6 trucks in total to provide the service and six drivers.
Did anyone else notice the play on words in the heading ‘trash train getting “canned”‘? I imagine it is also getting “bottled” and “egg shelled” and “coffee ground” as well.
Only a government entity buys into an ROI of 31+ years. As my good friend’s dad use to say, ex. government mechnical engineer, “Elephant, a mouse built to government specifications.” And let’s not lose sight of an expanded carbon footprint from 50 old cheap tractors gasping their last pull an overloaded trailer up the goat path.
The spur is is 4_1/2 miles, the total trip is roughly 25 miles (I think). Still the city is not paying for the majority of the roads being used.
The interest on borrowing $25 million at 4% is $1 million per year. Was this figured into the cost of generating the $ 0.8 million savings per year?
Wait til the first really bad and slippery weather…..That 800K is going to look pretty good..especially WHEN one of those Garbage Loads slides off into a ravine… I would suspect that Virginia Politics is the impetus for this move to trucks…Unions, and the current[ and succeeding] Political Party in power in Virginia have a long history of scratching each others backs… My suspicion is it is much deeper than just the smell of garbage in this ‘Deal’. The ability to carve up $25 million dollars, will make some folks jump through a lot of hoops…Just my opinion.
31.75 year break even point, not including maintenance on the road over those 30 + years, such as road repairs, snow plowing, etc. A short line seems to be a better alternative.
Politics. Someone in the area must own and operate a trucking company. There is no way you spend $25 million to save $800000 annually! Too, as mention here, the political wonk apparently don’t care about the trucks and the highway maintenance that goes along with it never mind the traffic. Bad choice. Just does not make sense economically. Hope the taxpayers are paying attention. Once the tracks are going they are probably gone forever.
Something smells rotten here, pun intended