Where the cost per tie is decided

Anyone pricing track work knows it. The tie is cheap, the track time is what costs. Briefing, authority and setting on come first, and the ties get replaced in what's left. What moves the cost per tie most is the question nobody gets to before the bid goes in.

One case on our Try page: a tie program priced on its planned work windows. Yesper built the parametric estimate. Window length moves the cost per tie most: longer windows take it from $276 to $259, and the gang has one laborer more than the inserter can use.

You ask the railroad for longer windows before the bid, instead of after the first night on the track, and you size the gang to the machine. Same across the Try page: crew and flagging hours from a window plan, a detailed estimate for a track section.

Try it yourself →