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Incident cost estimation

Estimate the cost of a railroad trespassing or suicide incident based on local factors to help prioritize corrective actions.
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Communities and railroad carriers have limited resources to put towards a wide range of challenges that they face. Prioritizing which challenges should be addressed and how depends on several factors, one of which is a benefit/cost assessment. This involves estimating both the cost of implementing a corrective action as well as the potential cost of not implementing that corrective action.

Assessing the cost of a rail trespassing or suicide incident can be incredibly complex. In addition to the loss of life, there are many direct costs associated with such an incident, including damage, delays, routing, and supply chain effects. Beyond those direct costs are a wide variety of upstream costs including increased emissions, emergency responder costs, and railroad operations costs. By capturing the true cost of an incident, a community or railroad stakeholder can make a better-informed decision about how to allocate funding appropriately.

Stakeholders can estimate these costs on their own, however, tools exist that may facilitate these estimations. One such tool is provided by the North Carolina Department of Transportation who developed a tool specific to the North Carolina operating environment [1]. This tool is publicly available, however, and can be customized to meet the needs of other communities and railroad carriers looking to estimate cost. A link to the tool can be found here: NCDOT Cost Estimation Tool.

Additional search terms: BCA, benefit, cost, data, funding, impact, risk

 

Last Reviewed: July 1, 2024

  • The true cost of railroad incidents is often underestimated by decision makers, which leads to reduced resources to improve railroad safety [1].
  • When estimating costs associated with a rail incident, consider costs related to: property damage; casualty costs; delay, rerouting, and supply chain; and emergency responder costs [1].
  • Provides a clearer picture of the true economic impact of railroad trespassing and suicide, including effects that are less immediately visible.
  • Allocates resources based on impacts felt by the affected communities.
  • A holistic estimation of costs may help to engage a broader group of stakeholders with the ability to offer resources to address railroad safety issues.
  • Some data are highly sensitive and not easily shared between stakeholders without collaboration, for example, time away from work for employees who experienced an incident or specific supply chain impacts.
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[1] Bert, S., Keller, C., Parsons, O., Randall, M., Poslusny, J., Lahare, A., Slunke, M., Searcy, S., and Findley, D. (2020). The Comprehensive Cost of Rail Incidents in North Carolina. Technical Report No. FHWA/NA/2020-44. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Department of Transportation, Research and Development Unit.

Abstract: This research provides a comprehensive appraisal and cost tool for the broad spectrum of events occurring on North Carolina’s rail network. It evaluates costs associated with property damage, casualty, and delay, rerouting, and supply chain events. It also analyzes upstream effects, emissions costs, railroad operating costs, and emergency responder costs. FRA safety database records are used to inventory rail incidents that have occurred in North Carolina, while a collection of journal articles, reports, and other data sources such as Amtrak delay records, American Association of Railroads repair and maintenance costs schedules, and public safety answering point data are used for the analysis. In 2019, there were 187 rail incidents in North Carolina, imposing a total estimated cost of approximately $258.3 million. Of the costs incurred, casualties comprised the largest cost component valued at a cost of $252,816,000. Property damage costs were approximately $3,651,000; costs associated with delay, rerouting, and supply chain disruptions were approximately $1,572,000; emissions costs were $131,000; operating costs were $73,000; and first and emergency responder costs were an estimated $60,000. From 2010-2019, rail incident costs in North Carolina totaled an estimated $2.4 billion. Policymakers often underestimate the costs of rail incidents and are thus less inclined to allocate scarce resources to rail safety countermeasures. Thus, accompanying this research, the NCDOT Rail Division will be acquiring a cost tool that can be used to estimate the costs associated with the broad spectrum of events that occur on North Carolina’s rail network. The tool can be used to tabulate costs resulting from an individual event or to aggregate costs over a specified time period. Additionally, the tool can be updated as needed with more recent data, making it a living tool that can be useful for years to come.

Incident cost estimation may be helpful when making decisions about the value of implementing any of the measures that are included in the TSP Toolkit.