A very short transmission line may act as a lumped reactance--either a series inductance or a shunt capacitance depending on its characteristic impedance. However, if the frequency of interest means the physical length is longer than 1/8th wavelength, the lumped "model" falls apart and is meaningless.
So, for a short line, just try to curve fit a series L or shunt C to the time domain response. For a long line, the length of the line should have not efffect on rise times, so you have to then use true transmission line theory to explain the behavior.