A CASE STUDY IN NEBRASKA: COAL AND COMMON CARRIAGE IN CONFLICT

To determine whether the economic welfare of agricultural shippers in Nebraska improved or deteriorated in response to increases in traffic density associated with coal traffic growth, cross section data for the year 1979 was used in conjunction with linear regression to test two hypotheses. Both hypotheses use country grain elevator corn bids as a measure of shipper benefits or costs. The first hypothesis states that there is no relationship between elevator bid and the density of rail traffic on the line on which each elevator is located. Rejection of this hypothesis would suggest that the economies or diseconomies of scale associated with density are shared with agricultural shippers. The second hypothesis states that there is no difference in the bid-density relationship between elevators located on the Union Pacific Railroad and those located on the Burlington Northern. Because during the late 1970's coal traffic growth on the Burlington Northern was considerably greater than on the Union Pacific, rejection of this hypothesis would suggest that coal traffic had a separate effect on the bid-density relationship. If that separate effect were adverse, then one could infer the coal traffic did have a negative impact on some agricultural shippers. The development and testing of these hypotheses is described in detail in this paper. Because both hypotheses rely on the assumption that the transportation costs of agricultural shippers, whether they be the explicit costs of freight rates or the implicit costs of poor quality service, will be reflected in prices bid for grain by country elevators, the validity of this assumption should be carefully examined. To do so, the paper opens with a discussion of the markets in which country elevators buy and sell grain.

• 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

  1600 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 905
  Arlington, VA  United States  22209
• Authors:
  • Fitzsimmons, E L
• Publication Date: 1989

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 310-319
• Serial:
  • Journal of the Transportation Research Forum
  • Volume: 29
  • Issue Number: 2
  • 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: Agricultural products; Bids; Case studies; Coal; Economic impacts; Grain elevators; Hypothesis testing; Linear regression analysis; Prices; Traffic density; Traffic managers
• Identifier Terms: BNSF Railway; Union Pacific Railroad
• Uncontrolled Terms: Hypothesis; Shippers
• Geographic Terms: Nebraska
• Old TRIS Terms: Bid prices
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Data and Information Technology; Economics; Highways; Railroads; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00490236
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-041 044
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 31 1989 12:00AM