ALTERNATIVES TO MERGERS. RAIL MERGER STUDY. ISSUE PAPER NUMBER 7

While for a half century mergers have been advocated as a means of arresting the decline of the U.S. rail system, recent experiences have cast some doubt on the effectiveness of the process. This paper explores operations, marketing and financial arrangements which may be viewed as alternatives to full-scale corporate mergers. Each alternative is described and its current application in the rail industry in identified. The advantages, disadvantages and major constraints on each are discussed. A summary of costs and benefits of the alternatives is presented.

• Corporate Authors:

  Interstate Commerce Commission

  Rail Services Planning Office
  Washington, DC  United States  20423
• Publication Date: 1977-8-18

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 75 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bankruptcy; Business conglomerates; Carpools; Consolidations; Diversification; Industry structure; Interchanges; Joint use; Mergers; Multimodal transportation; Nationalization; Profitability; Run through trains; Trackage rights
• Identifier Terms: Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976
• Old TRIS Terms: Joint facilities; Multimodal transportation systems; Pools
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Finance; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00165091
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Issue Paper 7
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 23 1977 12:00AM