Infrastructure upgrade to improve rail services
Watco customers served by three Midwest (USA)-based short line railroads will notice a service improvement thanks to two grants that have been awarded to the lines. The grants, combined ith Watco’s match, total USD 61.4 million. The infrastructure improvements will be made on the Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad and the South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad, which feeds traffic through Oklahoma to the Stillwater Central Railroad.
With the track upgrades, the lines will be able to accommodate the heavier 130 t cars that are now the industry standard, especially on the USA's class I railroads. The track speed along the lines will increase from 16 kmh to 40 kmh across much of the central region system. This will decrease the trip times of most trains by 50%, said Watco. Furthermore, the upgrades could possibly reduce the size of the railcar fleet needed to accommodate their moves or increase the amount of product they can ship out of production sites. (ben)