University of Wisconsin professor Allen Wortley will be the conductor on a series of new courses on modern railroad engineering beginning next week.

Wortley said with the recent addition of a class on freight railroad operations, the sequence of classes for postgraduate engineering students has grown to nine since its inception in 2001.

According to Wortley, these classes are an experiment to see if the components can be formed for a railroad education system in the United States, which he believes is severely lacking.

“The needs became apparent when I learned that there aren’t any undergraduate programs anywhere in the United States for railroad engineering,” Wortley said. “You can’t go and get an undergraduate degree or a graduate degree specifically tailored to railroading.”

Wortley said this lack of a proper railroad engineering program in America exists in part because many people are retiring from the industry due to age.

By introducing engineering students to railroading, he hopes to see at least four or five universities adopt formal railroad engineering programs.

“Traditionally we have not taught a lot of courses on rail infrastructure, construction or engineering, and we are beginning to look at that as a potential opportunity for us to educate our students and get research,” said Teresa Adams, professor of civil and environmental engineering.

The fact that railroads are once again becoming a very effective way to transport people and cargo has contributed to the increased demand for the growing usage of railroads and will eventually result in a need for more railroad engineers, according to Adams.

This demand could be met by the institution of a railroad engineering program.

But the increase in demand may also result in a need for alternative transportation options. Road and airway travel, along with waterway transport, are more costly and inefficient than railway transport in many ways.

“The highways and skyways are absolutely clogged, and there are a lot of environmental issues associated with all of those,” Wortley said. “Rail is so efficient from an environmental point of view, and there aren’t the environmental issues, by and large, that you get with the other modes.”

Railways could soon become an alternative mode of transportation for Madison.As part of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, Amtrak high speed passenger trains could be connecting Madison to cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis within the next five years.

These MWRRI tracks that would be used for Amtrak commuter trains interests Adams. According to Adams, one of their projects has been to see if these rails would be able to sustain freight trains along with the usual passenger cars.

“There are some issues as far as rail sharing between freight and passenger trains, but that would be really neat wouldn’t it?” Adams said.