COMPARING THE PERFORMANCE OF MAJOR AMERICAN RAILROADS

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a promising approach for assessing the efficiency of organizational units (different firms or companies) which employ multiple resources (inputs) to produce a number of services or products (outputs). Single-ratio analysis is often inconclusive in comparing several such organizations because each may have a higher productivity ratio for different resources. DEA has been used in such diverse applications as evaluating the performance of schools, local bank branches and hospitals. In this paper, we compare the performance of seven Class 1 North-American railroads. The inputs of each railroad are the number of freight cars, miles of track and number of employees. We take as outputs each railroad's revenue ton-miles and freight revenue. Different DEA models corresponding to various scenarios are studied, followed by a sensitivity analysis of the selection of inputs or outputs. Conclusions are drawn and interpreted in light of each railroad's market segment.

• Record URL:
  https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001070572/Home
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/10461469
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Forum

  1730 North Lynn Street, Suite 502
  Arlington, VA  United States  22209
• Authors:
  • Bookbinder, J H
  • QU, W W
• Publication Date: 1993

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 70-85
• Serial:
  • Journal of the Transportation Research Forum
  • Volume: 33
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Forum
  • ISSN: 1046-1469
  • Serial URL: https://trforum.org/journal-of-the-trf/
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Forecasting; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Output; Performance; Railroads; Sensitivity analysis
• Uncontrolled Terms: Class I railroads; Data envelopment analysis; Input; Models
• Geographic Terms: North America
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00634543
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 26 1993 12:00AM