TRUNK ROUTE ANALYSES: A USEFUL TOOL FOR STATEWIDE AND REGIONAL RAIL PLANNING

The underlying purpose in developing and applying a trunk route analysis procedure was to (a) prepare reliable estimates of traffic likely to use the various main lines that make up a rail system and (b) transform resulting traffic flows into estimates of railroad costs and revenue on the basis of links, nodes, corporate systems, and regional rail systems. The objective is to identify the overall effect of proposed changes in facility usage, routings, and corporate ownership through identification of the difference between the current system and alternative plans. The developed procedure used traffic assignment principles applied to rail freight. Key steps involved (a) establishing geographic and physical facility characteristics, (b) obtaining traffic and revenue data, (c) preparing the various inputs (physical characteristics of links, zone-to-zone traffic, and likely routings), and (d) assigning traffic and calculating associated costs and revenues by using a specially prepared computer program. The procedure, developed for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, was used to evaluate the United States Railway Association's Preliminary Systems Plan (for reorganizing bankrupt railroads in the Northeast and Midwest) and a simple plan proposed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The resulting procedure helps fill the void for rapid, large-scale tools for policy and systems level planning. Although developed for statewide and regional rail planning purposes, the procedure and supporting computer program are general enough to permit their application to other freight modes of an intercity character. /Author/

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1976/591/591-009.pdf
• Summary URL:
  http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=TRUNK+ROUTE+ANALYSES%3a+A+USEFUL+TOOL+FOR+STATEWIDE+AND+REGIONAL+RAIL+PLANNING&author=F.+Memmott&author=F.+Scholz&publication_year=1976
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/03611981
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Statewide Multi-modal Transportation Planning. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Memmott, Frederick W
  • Scholz, Frederick S
• Publication Date: 1976

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 44-50
• Monograph Title: Freight transportation characteristics
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 591
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Commodities; Computer programs; Economics; Forecasting; Freight traffic; Freight transportation; Origin and destination; Policy; Railroad transportation; Regional transportation; Routing; State departments of transportation; Statistics; Traffic assignment; Traffic density; Traffic flow; Traffic forecasting; Transportation; Transportation planning
• Geographic Terms: Pennsylvania
• Old TRIS Terms: Commodity statistics; Government policies; Regional rail reorganization act
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Economics; Policy; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00149186
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309025605
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 13 1977 12:00AM