Railfans: Where is a place that has rail being added NOT ripped up?

Question

I'm tired of railfanning in areas where track has been ripped up at an alarming rate. Is there anywhere in North America where rail (freight) is actually on the increase or at least stable.

Answer 1

To find brand new railroad being built a visit to a planned, new or expanding industrial park ought to do the trick.  In some cases the announcement of a new industry coming to town that will require rail service can be found out about.

Out on existing lines, the thing to do is find out where a piece of railroad is being rehabilitated or upgraded.  Then you see them remove old rail or ties and install the new.  Occasionally there is a full rebuild from the ballast up, but these are few.

Don't know about post Katrina in N.O., but where there are floods and railroads there are washouts and new construction.  Follow the weather.

It's pretty hard to find new lines being built from scratch.

Answer 2

Anywhere?  Heh, clearly you need to catch up on the trade rags.  

http://www.railwayage.com/  "The looming crisis in transportation" is that huge volumes of new traffic are overwhelming the available infrastructure.  Railroads are throwing down new rail as fast as they possibly can (get financing).

Santa Fe is finishing double-tracking the last 150 miles or so of the Transcon, and they're starting to triple-track.

Dakota Minnesota & Eastern is pushing hard to build a new line into the Powder River Basin.  

L.A. just finished the Alameda Corridor project to streamline trains in and out of Long Beach harbor.

This is nothing new, even 15 years ago the Susquehanna was reopening major routes.

Read the trades and find out where the action is.   Freight? Decline!?   Not hardly, they're doing better than the airlines.

Answer 3

UP is double tracking in New Mexico and will continue on into Arizona. This will aleviate the late AMTRAK Sunset Limited and also help the enormous freight volume

Answer 4

Here in Alaska the RR is a booming business that continues to grow.