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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)</title>
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      <link>https://trid.trb.org/</link>
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      <title>Rail Price Competition in the Upper Great Plains: A Post Stagger's Development?</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1907132</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in the grain pricing practices of railroads in the Upper Great Plains pre- and post-Staggers Rail Act. This paper will attempt to determine if any observable pricing practice changes have taken place and if product and geographic competition have been effective in preventing rate discrimination.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 15 Feb 2022 16:42:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1907132</guid>
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      <title>Contract Rates by Railroads</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1905283</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 permits the railroads to enter into contracts with shippers. While contracts were entered into before the Staggers Act they were under a cloud as to their legality.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Jan 2022 16:36:35 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1905283</guid>
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      <title>An Analysis of Title III of the Staggers Rail Act and Related Provisions</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1897275</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This paper presents an analysis of Title III of the Staggers Rail Act entitled Railroad Cost Determination.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Jan 2022 18:11:21 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1897275</guid>
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      <title>The Staggers Rail Act: Impact on Rate Structures and Services</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1891702</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This is the third of eight papers in the Transportation Deregulation and Agriculture series, John O. Gerald and Ken L. Casavant, general editors, published by the Western Rural Development Center. The series deals with the nature and potential impacts on agriculture of the Motor Carrier and Staggers Rail Acts of 1980. These acts, in part, removed federal regulation of the trucking and rail industries. This paper is concerned with the impact on rate structures and services of the Staggers Rail Act.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2021 16:06:48 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1891702</guid>
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      <title>Synopsis of Staggers Rail Act of 1980</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1891486</link>
      <description><![CDATA[A synopsis is presented of the Staggers Rail Act of 1980.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 23 Nov 2021 13:01:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1891486</guid>
    </item>
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      <title>The Continued Need for Balanced Railroad Regulation</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1549611</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This brief focuses on the benefits of the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 and railroad legislation. It discusses how the balanced regulation of the Staggers Act allowed railroads to make choices related to routes, pricing, and services. At the same time the Staggers Act allowed for the protection of customers against anti-competitive railroad behavior. The authors argue that railroads continue to need balanced regulation rather than regulatory reform to maintain the efficiency and quality of railroad service.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 21 Feb 2019 17:17:26 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1549611</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Success of the Staggers Rail Act of 1980</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1542911</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The 1980 Staggers Rail Act, removing or reducing federal regulation of rail freight operations,  brought stimulating change to United States railroads. There was considerable uncertainty over the new policy's outcome, with experts anticipating nationalization if the industry's economic performance could not be greatly improved. This paper assesses the experience of railroads and shippers over the twenty-five years since deregulation and finds that the main goal of improving the financial strength of the rail freight industry has been achieved. There are also benefits for shippers, with lower rates, improved reliability and better service times as rail carriers have passed on some of their cost savings. The author concludes that full deregulation, by eliminating the residual regulatory control of the Surface Transportation Board, would maintain these beneficial outcomes, with further gains for railroad companies and shippers.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Oct 2018 11:28:14 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1542911</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Modernizing U.S. Freight Rail Regulation</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1528557</link>
      <description><![CDATA[By 1970, regulation of railroads under the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 had resulted in an industry that was in financial ruin and unresponsive to changes in the marketplace. Subsequent legislation, which culminated in the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, was intended to resurrect the industry and did so. A Congressionally-mandated National Academy of Sciences study examined trends in the industry and the current regulatory regime and offered a number of recommendations, arguing that modernization can yield substantial benefits by modernizing what has become an outdated and ineffective system. This paper summaries some of the main findings of that study.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2018 17:24:57 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1528557</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Staggers Act at 35: Railroad Economics and Regulation</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1528556</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This collection of papers includes authors who served on the National Academy of Science-Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee for a Study of Freight Rail Transportation and Regulation (2014–15) and other authors who participated in the Economics and Regulation of the Freight Railroad Industry Research Colloquium at Georgetown University (June 2015). It covers topics from the TRB report and a wide range of other topics related to the freight railroad industry. These include: a synopsis of the research and findings of the TRB committee, the financial performance of railroads since deregulation, examination of price regulation, costing theory and methods, measuring revenue adequacy, consequences of providing network access, as well as railroad safety. The collection provides a comprehensive review of regulation, economics, and current issues confronting the freight railroad industry.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2018 17:24:57 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1528556</guid>
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      <title>The Staggers Act and Firm Performance: Long-Run Evidence</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1528555</link>
      <description><![CDATA[One of the primary purposes of the Staggers Act of 1980 was to increase the profitability of the railroad industry. The paper examines the industry’s financial performance from 1963 to 2013 and provides evidence that railroads outperformed most other industries from pre- to post-deregulation using accounting-based measures. However, using a market-based measure, the railroad industry underperforms two-thirds of industries. Additionally, the post-Staggers accounting performance improvements were not at the expense of firms from commodity groups that are reliant on rail transportation. Importantly, there exists considerable skewness and heterogeneity across measures, which affects the effectiveness of inferences that are based on the mean of the distribution to reflect economic reality.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2018 17:24:57 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1528555</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Regulation in a ‘Deregulated’ Industry: Railroads in the Post-Staggers Era</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1528554</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 substantially reduced regulation of the US freight rail industry. However, a significant amount of rail traffic remains potentially subject to regulatory rate intervention. The prevailing regulatory framework embodies elements of traditional public utility regulation, including fully distributed costing. Furthermore, explicit earnings regulation may be under consideration. This research reviews the evolution of regulatory policy in the rail industry and documents some of the many potential drawbacks to explicit earnings regulation.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2018 17:24:57 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1528554</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Perspective on Two-Score Years of Railroad Deregulation</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1516856</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the late 19th century, the U.S. railroad industry was regulated either by state railroad commissions or by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). Many experts believed that railroads were “natural monopolies,” that is, entities that could not be held in check by market forces alone because of their economies of scale. By the time freight and passenger rail were deregulated in the 1970s and 1980s, a century’s worth of rules and rate structures had to be undone. This article looks at the history of early railroad regulation, the origins of regulatory reform, and the passage of legislation including: the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, the Regional Rail Reorganization (3R) Act of 1973, the Rail Revitalization and Regulatory Reform (4R) Act of 1976, the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, and the Northeast Rail Service Act (NERSA) of 1981. It also discusses the increase in industry productivity and rise in traffic volume that took place after the passage of the Staggers Act.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 29 Jun 2018 10:31:56 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1516856</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Effects of Disclosure Requirements on Railroad Grain Transportation Contracts (Appendices)</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1505325</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Staggers Act of 1980 legalized confidential rail/shipper transportation contracts. Their acceptance by railroads and shippers is best demonstrated by the exponential growth of these contracts through the 1980s. In 1986, Congress mandated considerable disclosure in transportation contracts for grain, in response to the demands of some segments of the grain industry. With increased disclosure, the number of contracts began to decline although the volume moving under contract remained about the same. This report analyzes the impacts on railroad grain shipments brought about by Congressionally mandated disclosure rules covering railroad grain transportation contracts. It explores how the disclosure rules affected the propensity of railroads and shippers to enter into these contracts. It examines whether increased disclosure was responsible for the decrease in the number of contracts entered into, and whether disclosure affected the efficiency of grain movements and rail operations. The report also discusses how the different railroads crafted contracting policies to conform to their competitive position in the grain transportation industry.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2018 18:16:55 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1505325</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Effects of Disclosure Requirements on Railroad Grain Transportation Contracts</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1505324</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Staggers Act of 1980 legalized confidential rail/shipper transportation contracts. Their acceptance by railroads and shippers is best demonstrated by the exponential growth of these contracts through the 1980s. In 1986, Congress mandated considerable disclosure in transportation contracts for grain, in response to the demands of some segments of the grain industry. With increased disclosure, the number of contracts began to decline although the volume moving under contract remained about the same. This report analyzes the impacts on railroad grain shipments brought about by Congressionally mandated disclosure rules covering railroad grain transportation contracts. It explores how the disclosure rules affected the propensity of railroads and shippers to enter into these contracts. It examines whether increased disclosure was responsible for the decrease in the number of contracts entered into, and whether disclosure affected the efficiency of grain movements and rail operations. The report also discusses how the different railroads crafted contracting policies to conform to their competitive position in the grain transportation industry.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2018 18:16:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1505324</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Need for Balanced Railroad Regulation</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1488787</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This document discusses freight railroad regulation. It argues against excessive regulation noting that since the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, freight railroads have been able to reinvest more than $635 billion of their funds into the rail system. It provides a brief history of U.S. freight rail regulation, the impact of the Staggers Act, and looks at how over-regulation would effect competition. Data includes: Freight railroad performance since 1980 (productivity, volume, revenue, rates); Freight railroad net income 2007-2016; and Railroad spending on infrastructure and equipment 2007-2016.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jan 2018 10:51:07 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1488787</guid>
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