In 2007, the Class Is’ capital spending will total a record $9.4 billion, up more than 9 percent from 2006’s record $8.6 billion, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR). During the past four years, the large roads’ spending has increased about 60 percent.

Railroads have been willing to invest a large amount of their capital to maintain infrastructure, add capacity and adopt technology, AAR President and Chief Executive Officer Edward Hamberger stressed in a statement submitted to the Surface Transportation Board (STB), which conducted a hearing yesterday on freight-rail capacity and infrastructure requirements.

“Over the past 10 years, railroads have spent an average of 17.2 percent of revenues on capital expenditures compared with an average of 3.4 percent for manufacturing, putting railroads at or near the top among all U.S. industries in terms of capital intensity,” he said. “Traffic increases have resulted in capacity constraints at certain junctions and corridors within the rail network … [and] excess capacity has disappeared from many critical segments of our rail system.”

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