From what I had read, the concrete ties had the highest failure rates around grade-crossings, which get salted during the winter. The salt degraded the concrete and... yeah...
What salt usually does to concrete is not to degrade the concrete itself, but if poor in quality allows the salt water to get to the rebar and cause rust. Rust has a larger volume that the steel that is rusted and therefore breaks the concrete around it.
Likewise, if the concrete is poor in quality, read porus, water is absorbed into it and when it freezes, increasing the volume of the water, it pops off or crumbles the surrounding concrete. (Remember, if ice did not have a larger volume than the frozen water it contains, ice would not float.)
Either way, it would suggest somewhat poor quality concrete. The concrete in concrete ties is supposed to be in the range of 7,000 psi plus. For compparison, the concrete in your driveway or basement is probably in the range of 3,000 psi minus.
What about Rubber or plastic ties , there cheaper and seems to work just as well as concrete. Although there better for lighter loads....like Light Rail or Subways....
Many alternatives to wood have been tried over the years. None truly successful so far. They either are too expensive or do not work as advertized. As to ties in rubber, that is news to me. Any references? There are several plastic or composite ties that are out there in small quantities, but so far none have stood out.
Hint: the guys that sell these things usually moan about the lack of willingness to try new things on the part of the railroad track guys. That is really not true. They are always on the lookout for a way to do things better, easier, cheaper, but promises do not equal performance. The general method is buy a few and try it out. Since the normal life of a good wood tie is 30 years plus, that is a fairly high bar for the substitutes to leap over.
If somebody truly has a good product, they try to sell it on its merits, not by disparaging the current material. The guys that work with the stuff are well acquainted with the disadvantages, as well as the advantages of the materials currently in use. Another little point: If the guy with the new product calls on the management types rather than the engineering types, he probably has nothing worth selling and should be treated accordingly.