The latest Infrastructure Report Card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gives rail a B- grade, which was above the C average given to American infrastructure overall.
The report recommends that railroads continue to harden their physical plants to better resist increasingly frequent, longer duration, and more powerful natural disasters.
“Rail lines face considerable threats from extreme weather, making resilience a key priority for future projects. In 2024 alone, Hurricane Helene damaged … rail lines in the Southeast, while rising waters caused the collapse of a rail bridge over the Big Sioux River between South Dakota and Iowa, and excessive heat along the Northeast Corridor delayed Amtrak trains due to fires and speed restrictions,” according to the report, which was released today.
The report also says that railroads will need $145 billion in infrastructure investments between 2024 and 2033. Some $113 billion of that work has funding sources, the ASCE said, leaving a gap of $32 billion.
The civil engineers group estimates that for every $1 invested in infrastructure upgrades, another $4 is saved by not having to address costs related to network failures.
Transit systems received a grade of D. The report says that 96.9% of transit track miles were in a state of good repair as of 2023, an improvement over the last report based on 2019 data.
Roads earned a score of D+ in the report, which grades infrastructure from aviation to wastewater and everything in between.
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