Railroad Economics (eBook)

Cover 1
TOC$Contents 6
List of Contributors 8
CH$Chapter 1. Introduction 10
CH$Chapter 2. Evolution of Railroad Economics 20
1. Introduction 20
2. Railroads, Economic Development, and the Development of Economics 21
3. Economics of Railroads, then and Now 23
4. Railway Pricing 26
5. Rail Regulation in North America 30
6. Evolution of Rail Cost Analysis 33
7. Critiques of Rail Regulation 40
8. Understanding Competition in Rail Markets 43
9. The Deregulation Experience in North America 45
10. Government-Owned Railways 54
11. Railroad Monopoly Concerns Revisited 57
12. Conclusion 65
Notes 66
Acknowledgment 69
References 69
CH$Chapter 3. A hedonic Cost Function Approach to Estimating Railroad Costs 78
1. Introduction 78
2. Hedonic Model of Railroad Costs 80
3. Using the Hedonic Cost Function to Infer Individual Movement Costs 94
4. Summary and Implications 100
Notes 101
Acknowledgments 103
References 103
CH$Chapter 4. Spatially Generated Transportation Demands 106
1. Introduction 106
2. The Model 109
3. Data 111
4. Empirical Application and Results 113
5. Illustrations 114
6. Demand Schedules 118
7. Equilibrium and Concluding Comments 122
Notes 124
References 126
CH$Chapter 5. Rail Passenger Demand Forecasting: Cross-Sectional Models Revisited 128
1. Introduction 128
2. Background 129
3. Enhancing the Catchment Area Specification 133
4. More Detailed Investigation of Access Time Effects 142
5. Dealing with Station Competition 152
6. Conclusions 157
Note 159
Acknowledgments 159
References 159
CH$Chapter 6. Railroad Pricing and Revenue-to-Cost Margins in the Post-Staggers Era 162
1. Background and Introduction 163
2. Estimated Rail Rates and Marginal Costs 164
3. Pricing Behavior 173
4. Revenue-to-Cost Ratio 176
5. Conclusions 180
Notes 181
References 182
Appendix 184
CH$Chapter 7. Options for Restructuring the State-Owned Monopoly Railway 188
1. Introduction 188
2. Options for Creating Rail Versus Rail Competition 191
3. Choosing Among the Alternatives 194
4. Access Pricing 200
5. Conclusion 202
Notes 203
Acknowledgment 204
References 204
CH$Chapter 8. Trespassing on the Railroad 208
1. Introduction 208
2. Data 209
3. Documented Suicides 209
4. Historical Perspective 210
5. Who, Where, and What 213
6. Time Series Analysis 1947–2003 218
7. Decomposition of Time-Series Trends 224
8. The way Forward 227
9. Conclusions 231
References 232
CH$Chapter 9. Energy use and Pollutant Emissions Impacts of Shortline Railroad Abandonment 234
1. Introduction 234
2. Literature Review 238
3. The Study Area 242
4. Description of the Kansas wheat Logistics System 243
5. The wheat Logistics System Model 245
6. Transportation Energy Consumption 250
7. Emission Factors 252
8. Empirical Results 254
9. Other External Effects of Shortline Railroad Abandonment 259
10. Conclusion 260
Notes 261
References 261
Appendix: Mathematical Structure of the Network Model 264
CH$Chapter 10. Earnings Differentials of Railroad Managers and Labor 268
1. Introduction 268
2. Deregulation and Railroad Labor Earnings 273
3. Data and Labor Earnings Model 276
4. Estimation Results 281
5. Conclusion 282
Notes 283
Acknowledgments 286
References 286
Appendix 288