PROCEDURES FOR DEVELOPING STATE RAIL PLANS

Several state rail plans have been developed under the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 and the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976. These plans typically use an index method to rank those lines that are eligible for continuation subsidies. The usefulness and applicability of the index procedure, however, are characterized by several problems. The purpose of this paper is to review these problems and to present an alternative method of ranking branch rail lines. This method is the benefit-cost ratio approach, which was used to develop the Iowa Department of Transportation rail plan. The ratio provides estimates, first, of the dollar value of each rail line to shippers, receivers, and the community and, second, of the annualized present dollar value of the cost of operating, maintaining, and upgrading the rail line.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1978/687/687-001.pdf
• Summary URL:
  • http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=PROCEDURES+FOR+DEVELOPING+STATE+RAIL+PLANS&author=C.+Baumel&author=J.+Miller&author=T.+Drinka&publication_year=1978
• 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 State Role in Rail Transport. 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:
  • Baumel, C Phillip
  • Miller, John J
  • Drinka, Thomas P
• Conference:
  • 57th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia, United States
  • Date: 1978-1-16 to 1978-1-20
• Publication Date: 1978

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 2-4
• Monograph Title: Surface transport regulation and railroad planning
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 687
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Abandonment; Accounting; Branch lines; Deficits; Economic analysis; Railroad transportation; Socioeconomic factors; State government; States; Subsidies; Transportation planning
• Identifier Terms: Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976
• Geographic Terms: Iowa
• Old TRIS Terms: State rail plan
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00196870
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309028329
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 28 1979 12:00AM