SHORT LINE RAILROADS AND THE RURAL ECONOMY

The objective of this paper is to determine if short lines are an economically viable alternative to abandonment of rural branchlines. The objective is pursued through a derived demand approach that involves personal interviews of 199 grain shippers and 110 non-grain shippers located on 13 grain dependent short lines in Iowa and Kansas. Shippers evaluated their short lines on 17 price and service characteristics. Results indicate that both the grain and non-grain shippers generally approve of the price and service performance of their short lines. The shippers also compared the performance of their short lines to that of their predecessor Class I railroad on the same set of 17 price and service characteristics. Both shipper groups rated the price/service performance of their short line as better than that previously provided by their Class I railroad, with the grain shippers observing a greater improvement than the non-grain shippers. Shippers compared the performance of short lines to that of motor carriers on 13 price and service characteristics. Both shipper groups rate their short lines as better than motor carriers on prices, but motor carriers are rated better than short lines on service characteristics related to market access, transit time, dependability of transit time, and frequency of service. Results reveal that short lines offer a competitive transportation service and are therefore economically viable, assuming that short line service can be profitably supplied in the long run.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Forum

  11250-8 Roger Bacon Drive, Suite 8
  Reston, VA  United States  20190
• Authors:
  • Babcock, M W
  • Prater, M
  • Morrill, J
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Forum, 36th Annual Conference, 2 volumes
  • Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
  • Date: 1994-11-3 to 1994-11-5
• Publication Date: 1994

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 467-484

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Abandonment; Access; Branch lines; Demand; Economic factors; Electromagnetic frequencies; Freight transportation; Grain; Interviewing; Level of service; Markets; Motor carriers; Performance; Prices; Railroad transportation; Railroads; Reliability; Rural areas; Shipments; Short line railroads; Time; Traffic managers
• Uncontrolled Terms: Class I railroads; Economy; Service; Shippers
• Subject Areas: Economics; Freight Transportation; Highways; Motor Carriers; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00727083
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Volume 2
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 18 1996 12:00AM