BNSF in 2025 is devoting nearly 75% of its $3.8 billion capital plan, or $2.84 billion, to maintenance, including 11,400 miles of track surfacing and/or undercutting work and the replacement of 410 miles of rail and 2.5 million ties. For Union Pacific (UP), an estimated $1.9 billion—56% of this year’s roughly $3.4 billion capital plan—will go toward upgrading and replacing infrastructure, such as ballast, rail and ties. Such spending is critical.
Crossties have served as the foundation of railroad infrastructure since the early 19th century, supporting the rail, as well as the safe passage of passengers and freight. While wood ties are most prevalent across the North American network, concrete, steel and composite versions are found in special applications—from high-speed rail to high-decay environments and industrial/port projects.
The following suppliers share crosstie market insights; the latest in tie technologies, including products that help boost longevity and reduce m/w costs; and updates on end-of-life disposal options.
Koppers Inc.
“The current market condition for treated crossties is robust as the railroads’ investment in capex and maintenance is strong,” reports John P. McDonald, Vice President of Sales and Product Management for Koppers, which offers pressure-treated products (creosote-treated crossties and switch ties). “The long-term outlook from customers is uncertain due to macroeconomic events and as they interpret government policies. Tariffs do pose some supply chain risk all the way through to the end-user level.”
Koppers is “grateful for the customer partnerships that FRA’s CRISI program and similar programs have provided,” McDonald says, “even as we understand that some of that funding directed through state programs has slowed during the transition to a new Administration. Government spending, which is usually a boost for our customers and demand for our product, is facing challenges that need to be worked through, but we don’t fear important programs like CRISI will go away entirely even as infrastructure law provisions end.”
McDonald reports that Koppers is involved in many projects and is seeing growing demand along UP’s Sunset Route. “Our North Little Rock facility, which boasts a design capacity of north of four million ties per year, is perfectly situated for raw material supply and deliveries to these key heavy-haul lanes,” he notes.
Educating customers and potential customers is important to the company, according to McDonald. It recently hosted the RTA Tie Grading Seminar and has invited railroads for a tour and technical summit at the Stickney Plant in Cicero, Ill. Koppers also has an applied research facility and working laboratory that focuses on the development of new product applications, technical assistance, and comprehensive testing services. “KGTC is what advances our product formulations and helps our customers realize the value behind the investment they make in a quality product,” McDonald says. “Our door is always open.”
NARSTCO
“We’re seeing a fundamental shift in the rail sector,” Vice President of Sales Matt Violin tells Railway Age. “Safety, sustainability and cost-effectiveness are no longer just buzzwords; they’re essential. NARSTCO is meeting these demands head-on, providing premium steel ties, turnouts, and our advanced ‘e’ clip fasteners to industrial rail yards, transit systems and Class I railroads across North America.”
The company’s ties consist of “high-quality recycled U.S. steel,” and “are free from hazardous chemicals, addressing growing environmental concerns and prioritizing the safety of rail workers,” Violin says. They offer an extended service life and reduce track maintenance and downtime, he notes. “They ensure consistent track gauge and offer exceptional durability.”
Port projects are a focus for NARSTO, including the approximately 120-acre Navy Base Intermodal Facility in Charleston, S.C., which is expected to open later this year. To be served by Norfolk Southern and CSX, the intermodal yard will provide near-dock rail to the Port of Charleston; nearly 80,000 feet of track is slated to create a capacity of one million rail lifts in Phase 1. “We’re also supplying steel ties and turnouts to large-scale port expansions in Alabama, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina, as well as crucial projects in Quebec and Ontario, Canada,” Violin says.
The automotive industry’s increased demand for rail service is boosting business, too. “We saw significant success in 2024 with the Ford Blue Oval project in Tennessee and the Hyundai project in Georgia,” Violin says. “These projects required a large quantity of our ‘sustainable’ steel ties and turnouts.” The company expects continued sector growth.
Evertrak
Wood Decay Zones in the United States. (Courtesy of Evertrak)
St. Louis, Mo.-based Evertrak offers a composite crosstie made with a Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer manufactured from recycled plastic. According to the AAR M-1003-certified company, it is “engineered to perform reliably in track for up to 50 years in high-rot regions” (see chart, right) compared with an average of 8-12 years for wood ties. It is also fully recyclable.
The company launched the Evertrak 7000 in 2017, according to Founder and CEO Tim Noonan, who tells Railway Age “7000 refers to a modulus of rupture of 7,000 psi.”
“I was talking with three Class I chief engineers, and they had seen ties rotting from the inside out, failing in less than five years in the Southeastern U.S.,” Noonan says. “So, I believe the time is now for a new category of tie, which can stand up to the wear and tear of freight rail in the U.S. in the high-decay zones … About 3%-3.5% of the installed base [of U.S. ties] is replaced every year, except in the Southeastern U.S, where 10%-12% is replaced.”
“If you look at trends in weather, the decay zones are shifting to the Northwest,” Noonan says. “So, I think High-Decay Zone 5 and parts of High-Decay Zone 4 are great places to start. I live in Missouri. I’ve seen ties that are being replaced in 14 years. So, it’s a great place to start for what we believe is the 4 to 6 million ties a year getting replaced that are failing in less than 12 years.”
Sumitomo Corporation in January backed Evertrak with a strategic investment. The decision, it reported, “stems from a shared vision to build sustainable railroad infrastructure and the opportunity to create synergies” with Sumitomo’s existing businesses, which include the supply of rail, tie plates, wheels and axles.
Union Pacific has also partnered with Evertrak and other composite tie manufacturers, to install their products in areas where the average wood tie lifespan is 8-15 years due to decay associated with heat, humidity and subgrade, compared with other areas of the railroad where wood tie life averages 25 years. In late 2023, Evertrak ties were installed around Little Rock, Ark.; St. Louis, Mo.; Fort Worth, Tex.; and Reno, Nev., as well as on several bridges.
Stella-Jones
With a supply network of some 1,200 hardwood sawmills, Stella-Jones provides crossties and switch ties in a variety of sizes, plus creosote, borate, and copper naphthenate treatments for mixed hardwoods and oak. It also offers custom services.
Throughout 2024, the company “continued to see sustained, steady growth in demand,” due to customers’ “consistent repair and maintenance needs,” according to Vice President Global Railway Tie Sales Jim Raines. It was the 24th consecutive year of sales growth.
“We are laser-focused on being a partner of choice for our customers, and beyond our commitment to deliver quality products on time, we remain open to opportunities to collaborate with customers on projects and innovations that help them meet their goals and support healthy, resilient rail infrastructure,” Raines tells Railway Age.
Stella-Jones in 2024 continued making operational improvements to increase efficiency and workplace safety, according to Raines. “For instance, we installed a new drip pad structure at our Winslow, Ind., treating facility, a significant project that attests to our commitment to reinvest in the quality of our assets and network,” he says. “Our objective as a business is to continue to be a partner of choice for our customers through our robust operating model, as well as the quality, responsiveness and service they have come to expect from our business.”
voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak (Nortrak)
Nortrak in January teamed with Müntschemier, Switzerland-based Sonneville AG for the sales and manufacturing of Low Vibration Track (LVT) for slab track applications. The move was part of the company’s “continued investment in the development of fixation systems, including concrete crossties and rail fasteners, to complement its turnout offerings,” according to John Stout, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development Fixation for Nortrak, which in 2023 acquired Spokane, Wash.-based CXT Concrete Ties from L.B. Foster Company. “Nortrak is already producing LVT blocks in its Spokane and Cheyenne plants,” he tells Railway Age. “The broader portfolio of concrete tie products helps to offset the general softness in market demand with Class I customers in the near term. The long-term demand outlook is somewhat more positive as new-build passenger projects come to fruition and freight customers begin concrete tie replacement cycles for the first generation of ties installed in the 1980s-1990s.”
Nortrak recently completed concrete tie and turnout supply for two transit projects in San Francisco, Calif., and St. Louis, Mo., and construction and commissioning is ongoing for both. “Nortrak has now shifted its focus to delivering concrete ties for West Coast industrial and port-related projects,” Stout reports.
Nortrak also sees the opportunity to grow business through “product innovation” like its Keyway Tie, according to Stout. Interspersed with wood ties, the Keyway Tie is able “to provide the same track modulus but far greater gauge holding ability compared with wood tie fastening systems,” he says. Several Class I’s and multiple passenger railroads have installed it “with excellent results, especially in curves to strengthen gauge holding, extending the service lives of the remaining wood ties and reducing maintenance intervals,” Stout reports. The addition of the Sonneville LVT system, he notes, “gives Nortrak the ability to provide end-to-end fixation solutions for passenger rail customers including concrete main line and turnout ties for ballasted track, LVT Block and vulcanized rubber bonded direct fixation fasteners to slab track sections, all of which are now manufactured at Nortrak facilities.”
WVCO Railroad Solutions
WVCO Railroad Solutions offers wood and composite tie repair and dispensing systems, as well as elastomeric coatings to protect hopper cars. “Markets remain very strong for our products, and we expect sales to continue to grow long term as we continue to prioritize service, innovation and integrity,” reports Rob Loomis, Vice President of the Transportation and Infrastructure Division at The Willamette Valley Company (WVCO). “Our SpikeFast wood and concrete tie-plugging products continue to show robust sales as a reliable, high-quality solution for our customers. Interest in SpikeFast IJ-30 [for insulated joint repair] has been growing, especially in the past year.”
According to WVCO Railroad Solutions, insulated joints are typically constructed with nylon inserts that maintain insulation between adjacent rail sections. Wear and environmental exposure can lead “to failures that compromise both functionality and safety,” the company notes, which is why it developed SpikeFast® IJ-30. Described as “a rapid-setting, two-part polyurethane,” the product creates a “seamless bond that provides electrical isolation, enhances the overall stability of the joint and minimizes displacement; absorbs shocks and vibrations; resists moisture, temperature extremes and UV exposure; and helps reduce the frequency of maintenance and repair.”
WVCO Railroad Solutions also has “a dedicated in-house R&D department that collaborates with customers to develop solutions to meet their needs,” Loomis tells Railway Age.
NISUS Corporation
NISUS manufactures copper naphthenate (QNAP®) and Disodium Octaborate Tetrahydrate borate products (such as Cellu-Treat®) wood preservatives for railroad crossties, switch ties, bridge timbers and pilings. QNAP can be used as a stand-alone or as a dual treatment with Cellu-Treat, which can be employed as a dual treatment with QNAP or other selected preservatives.
In addition to boosting crosstie longevity, copper naphthenate facilitates crosstie disposal. At the end of their lifecycle, QNAP-treated ties can be used in residential landscaping and mulch production, for example. “But arguably more important,” reports Jeff Lloyd, Corporate Senior Vice President of Innovation and Sustainability, “they meet the EPA non-hazardous secondary materials rule and are the only treated product that’s allowed to be burned for fuel in any State-permitted boiler.”
Lloyd tells Railway Age that NISUS uses two treatment plants permitted to employ end-of-life wood for boiler fuel, plus there are peer-reviewed articles on the extraction and reuse of the preservatives. NISUS also works with third parties who use waste wood from crosstie production to make synthetic oil, as well as for gasification and electricity production.
NISUS is currently working on new technologies to improve wood preservative penetration. “With a borate-creosote tie or a borate-copper naphthenate tie, you expect a 10-year performance based on the borate and then another 10-year performance based on the primary preservative in a high-hazard location,” Lloyd reports. “But the newer technologies we’re looking at now get the copper naphthenate into those heartwood portions [of the tie that are harder to penetrate and protect] and significantly extend that life.” This is key, he says, since most wood crossties fail when the heartwood—the older, darker and denser inner wood—deteriorates. So far, results have been “fantastic,” according to Lloyd.
Omaha Track
Omaha Track provides steel products, including new and reclaimed rail and other track material, plus railroad services, such as infrastructure reclamation, abandoned track removal, new construction, and track expansion, maintenance, inspections and repair.
“Tie repurposing is a difficult market to manage,” President Jeff Peterson tells Railway Age. “Economic shifts in the energy sector and consumer pricing coupled with uncertain political positions create some variables in our forecasts. We are always looking for new outlets or technologies for repurposed ties to find the best use for this resource. Tried and true methods of repurposing still consume most ties. The primary area of growth will likely continue to be repurposing for landscaping, etc.”
Omaha Track has “dabbled in numerous technologies ranging from pyrolysis, biochar, mobile incineration, new energy processes, gasification and aggregate replacement,” Peterson reports. “The next magic bullet in the industry is easy to talk about but not so easy to put into practice. I am sure one day the economies will align to make a technological breakthrough in the industry. As of now, it seems the old ways are still the best ways.” The company, however, anticipates “relaxed rules in the power generation/tie fuel space,” he says, “which will increase demand and locations for repurposed ties.”
What are customers looking for most? “We are squeezed from both sides to reduce cost and pricing,” Peterson reports. “The supply side of repurposed ties is looking for value-added propositions and reduced cost, and consumers are looking for lower pricing in the final product—obviously, a tough position to be in. We are looking for efficiencies to provide some relief to our stakeholders, but rising prices on everything are making our efforts less effective.”
