Managing Rail Expansion and Congestion in North American Freight Transportation PDF Download

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Freight and freightage
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description

Author: Richard Hillestad
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833048996
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
Efficient movement of freight within the United States and across its borders is a critical enabler of future U.S. economic growth. The authors provide an overview of the freight-transportation system and the problems it faces, concluding with a discussion of key system-modernization issues, including increasing capacity, making the system less vulnerable to disruption, addressing environmental concerns, and building support for funding.

Author: Joseph Bryan
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
ISBN: 0309098939
Category : Freight and freightage
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
NCHRP Report 586 explores guidance on evaluating the potential feasibility, cost, and benefits of investing in rail freight solutions to alleviate highway congestion from heavy truck traffic.

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Railroads
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description

Author: Elizabeth Pinkston
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Freight and freightage
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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Book Description

Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Freight and freightage
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description

Author: National Research Council (U.S.). Transportation Research Board. Committee for the Study of Freight Capacity for the Next Century
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
ISBN: 030907746X
Category : Freight and freightage
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
Recommends development of a national policy to promote better management and investment decisions in order to maintain and improve the capacity of the nation's freight system. This report recommends four principles to guide decisions about using, enlarging, funding, or regulating the freight transportation system.

Author: United States. Government Accountability Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Railroads
Languages : en
Pages : 10

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Book Description
Strong productivity gains in the U.S. economy hinge, in part, on transportation networks working efficiently. Continued development and efficient management of the nation's freight transportation system, especially highways and rail lines that connect international gateways and intermodal facilities to retailers, producers, and consumers, are important to sustaining the nation's competitive position in the global economy. However, the increasing congestion on the transportation system poses a threat to the efficient flow of the nation's goods and has strained the system in some locations. Moreover, recent growth in international trade has placed even greater pressures on ports, border crossings, and distribution hubs. Congestion delays that significantly constrain freight mobility in these areas could result in increased economic costs for the nation. The Federal Highway Administration has calculated that delays caused by highway bottlenecks cost the trucking industry alone more than $8 billion a year.

Author: William Mallett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 102

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Book Description
Surface transportation congestion most likely will be a major issue for Congress as it considers reauthorisation of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act -- A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA), P.L. 109-59, which is set to expire on 30 September 2009. By many accounts, congestion on the nation's road and railroad networks, at seaports and airports, and on some major transit systems is a significant problem for many transportation users, especially commuters, freight shippers, and carriers. Indeed, some observers believe congestion has already reached crisis proportions. Others are less worried, believing congestion to be a minor impediment to mobility, the by-product of prosperity and accessibility in economically vibrant places, or the unfortunate consequence of over reliance on cars and trucks that causes more important problems such as air pollution and urban sprawl. Trends underlying the demand for freight and passenger travel -- population and economic growth, the urban and regional distribution of homes and businesses, and international trade -- suggest that pressures on the transportation system are likely to grow substantially over the next 30 years. Although transportation congestion continues to grow and intensify, the problem is still geographically concentrated in major metropolitan areas, at international trade gateways, and on some intercity trade routes. Because of this geographical concentration, most places and people in America are not directly affected by transportation congestion. Consequently, in recent federal law, Congress, for the most-part, has allowed states and localities to decide the relative importance of congestion mitigation vis-a-vis other transportation priorities. This has been accompanied by a sizeable boost in funding for public transit and a more moderate boost in funding for traffic reduction measures as part of a patchwork of relatively modest federally directed congestion programs. Congress may decide to continue with funding flexibility in its reauthorisation of the surface transportation programs. States and localities that suffer major transportation congestion would be free to devote federal and local resources to congestion mitigation if they wish. Similarly, congestion-free locales would be able to focus on other transportation-related problems, such as connectivity, system access, safety, and economic development. Alternatively, Congress may want to more clearly establish congestion abatement as a national policy objective, given its economic development impact, and take a less flexible and, in other ways, more aggressive approach to congestion mitigation. Three basic elements that Congress may consider are (1) the overall level of transportation spending, (2) the prioritization of transportation spending, and (3) congestion pricing and other alternative ways to ration transportation resources with limited government spending. Congress also may want to consider the advantages and disadvantages of specific transportation congestion remedies. Hence, this book discusses the three basic types of congestion remedies proposed by engineers and planners: adding new capacity, operating the existing capacity more efficiently, and managing demand.

Author: Clifford Winston
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815714386
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
For close to 100 years, America's surface freight industries, primarily rail and trucking, operated under the protective wing of the U.S. government. In 1980 Congress, finding vast inefficiencies in the two industries, substantially deregulated both, opening them at last to market competition. Deregulation has brought with it many changes—for firms within the industries, for their labor force, and for shippers and their customers. Clifford Winston, Thomas M. Corsi, Curtis M. Grimm, and Carol A Evans provide a comprehensive evaluation of the effect of the deregulation legislation on the rail and trucking industries. According to the authors, deregulation has made substantial progress in solving the two most vexing problems of the surface freight transportation industry—excessive rates in the trucking industry and insufficient returns on investment in the rail industry. Competition and efficiency have returned to both industries, and although the labor force in each has suffered wage and job losses, shippers and their customers have gained roughly $20 billion a year in benefits. The authors recommend policies that would continue to promote competition and the efficient use of highway and railway infrastructure.