Structure of the agreement between Norfolk Southern and Delaware. The agreement between the state and Norfolk Southern was signed on May 3, 2002.10 It does not appear to have involved any detailed analysis of expected future traffic. Rather, it was based on recovering most of the state’s costs over a 20-year period if traffic over the bridge returned to pre-1994 levels. In addition to providing for reconstruction of the Shellpot Bridge, the agreement also gave Delaware the right to operate passenger trains over any NS track in Delaware “without further rent or user fees”. The state has for several years been studying the feasibility of operating passenger trains between Dover, the state 10 “Railroad Facilities Improvement and Revenue Participation Agreement”, executed by Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx XXX, Secretary of Transportation, State of Delaware, and H. Xxxxx Xxxxx, Vice President, Norfolk Southern Corp., May 3, 2002. capital and Wilmington, the largest city. The Shellpot agreement gives the state authority to do this. The agreement was crafted to both protect the state’s interest and to encourage NS to use the bridge. It specified a minimum annual payment by NS, whether or not the bridge was used, that would have been nearly enough to return the state’s original $4.75 million investment. This minimum annual charge is shown in Table 2. Years 1 through 5 $150,000 $750,000 Years 6 through 10 $200,000 $1,000,000 Years 11 through 15 $250,000 $1,250,000 Years 16 through 20 $300,000 $1,500,000 Total Payments over 20 Years $4,500,000 Of course, the minimum payment would not have been nearly adequate to recover the $13.9 million actually spent by the state. However, the agreement was structured to require a high initial per-car payment by NS, with the payment declining as the volume of cars increased. This, the state hoped, would give NS an incentive to move an increasing number of cars over the bridge and increase the probability of a positive return to the state. The schedule of payments per car is shown in Table 3. The first column shows the originally agreed payment schedule. However, the contract provided that, should the state’s contribution increase, so would the payment by NS. The adjusted per-car charges reflect amounts NS pays as of 2005. Up to 5,000 $35.00 $ 48.03 5,000 to 20,000 $20.00 $ 27.45 20,000 to 35,000 $15.00 $ 20.58 35,000 to 50,000 $10.00 $ 13.72 More than 50,000 $5.00 $ 6.86 Note: Rates based on final state cost of $13,919,820.40 and agreed to by NS. The agreement is structured so that NS pays the greater of either...
