Financing Rail Capital Projects: Historical Lessons, Contemporary Cases

Details

• Creators:
  Cohen, James K.
• Corporate Creators:
  John Jay College of Criminal Justice
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Finance Financing Governments High Speed Rail History I10: Economics And Administration I70: Traffic And Transport Passenger Service Private Enterprise Railroads Research Hub Research Projects

  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  49111-09-23
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• TRIS Online Accession Number:
  01488499
• Edition:
  Final Report
• Corporate Publisher:
  University Transportation Research Center
• NTL Classification:
  NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-High Speed Ground Transportation ; NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail Planning and Policy ; NTL-REFERENCES AND DIRECTORIES-History ; NTL-ECONOMICS AND FINANCE-ECONOMICS AND FINANCE
• Abstract:
  Two large questions informed the research for this article: first, how and why did the mid‐20th century shift from private to public ownership, financing and operation of passenger railways affect the subsequent financing and development of high speed rail? Second, does high speed rail create opportunities for the return of the private sector to a significant role in passenger rail transport, such as financing and operating new lines? To answer these questions, we adopted a historical, cross‐national approach, which is relatively unusual in the field of public policy. While a number of articles have been written about general lessons that can be learned from foreign experience with high speed rail, our approach analyzes the specific reasons why the U.S. has lagged behind other countries. France was selected as a comparison case because, first, its history of moving from private to public provision of passenger rail services closely paralleled American rail history up to the Great Depression; and, second, because the divergence between the two countries at the end of the Great Depression provides powerful evidence for analyzing the causes of the decline of U.S. passenger railways in the post‐World War 2 period. Scholars can build upon our work by carrying out other cross‐national and historical comparisons that further elucidate the reasons why high speed rail has succeeded so well in other parts of the world, but not in the U.S.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  49111-09-23
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8fb363825407b3b89883548f3f5d0ff48eb03072823f27ac16cc07abf721133cb42597ce82a4fcc3d0948afc3e0cb318422b68e000206ae39c549ffb48d3b510
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/26152/dot_26152_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 402.36 KB ]