Federal and state transportation planners and others seeking to analyze transportation systems find few publicly available rail analysis models to estimate the operational costs and environmental impacts of rail movements. Moreover, data to populate such models and to test public policy considerations for evaluating public–private partnerships are generally difficult to obtain. This paper, a product of a study funded by Region 6 of the University Transportation Center Program, offers stakeholders the building blocks to develop an integrated rail analysis model capable of testing railway operational and capital investment changes. The paper also reviews the current state of rail modeling, examines selected rail models, and presents the findings of a preliminary intermodal rail costing model developed in the work.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ForkenbrockD. J.Comparison of External Costs of Rail and Truck Freight Transportation. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2001, pp. 321–337.
2.
BereskinC. G.Railroad Economies of Scale, Scope and Density Revisited. Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, Vol. 48, No. 2, 2009, pp. 23–38.
3.
BereskinC. G.Sequential Estimation of Railroad Costs for Specific Traffic. Transportation Journal, Vol. 40, No. 3, 2001, pp. 33–45.
4.
BereskinC. G.Railroad Capital Stock Changes in the Post-Deregulation Period. Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, Vol. 46, No. 1, 2007, pp. 95–110.
5.
CavesD. W., ChristensenL. R., and SwansonJ. A.The High Cost of Regulating U.S. Railroads. Regulation, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1981, pp. 41–46.
6.
CavesD. W., ChristensenL. R., and SwansonJ. A.Productivity in U.S. Railroads, 1951–1974. Bell Journal of Economics, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1980, pp. 166–181.
7.
IvaldiM., and MacCulloughG. J.Density and Integration Effects on Class I U.S. Freight Railroads. Journal of Regulatory Economics, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2001, pp. 161–182.
8.
SpadyR. H., and FriedlaenderA. F.Economic Estimation of Cost Functions in the Transportation Industries. Report No. 76–13. Center for Transportation Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 1976.
AECOM Consult Incorporated.Cost-Allocation Methods for Commuter, Intercity, and Freight Rail Operations on Shared-Use Rail Systems and Corridors.NCHRP Project 20–65. Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2007.
11.
SmithM. E.Demonstration of the Rail Energy Cost Analysis Package: The Route Perspective (RECAP II). In Transportation Research Record 1006, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1985, pp. 23–31.
12.
HayW. W.Railroad Engineering.John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1982.
13.
DeSalvoJ. S.A Process Function for Rail Line-Haul Operations.Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif., 1967.
14.
AvalloneE. A., BaumeisterT., and SadeghA.Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, 11th ed. McGraw–Hill, New York, 2006.
HigginsA.Scheduling of Railway Track Maintenance Activities and Crews. Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 49, No. 10, 1998, pp. 1026–1033.
18.
JohanssonP., and NilssonJ.-E.An Economic Analysis of Track Maintenance Costs. Transport Policy, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2004, pp. 277–286.
19.
FerreiraL., and MurrayM. H.Modeling Rail Track Deterioration and Maintenance: Current Practices and Future. Transport Reviews, Vol. 17, No. 3, 1997, pp. 207–221.
20.
DekkerR.Applications of Maintenance Optimization Models: A Review and Analysis. Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Vol. 51, No. 3, 1996, pp. 229–240.
21.
FHWA.Freight Analysis Framework.U.S. Department of Transportation, 2002.
22.
ProzziJ., SpurgeonK., and HarrisonR.Secret Lives of Containers: Evidence from Texas. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1833, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 3–10.
23.
ResorR. R., BlazeJ. R., and MorlokE. K.Short-Haul Rail Intermodal: Can It Compete with Trucks? In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1873, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2004, pp. 45–52.
