ECONOMIC IMPACT ANALYSIS OF GDOT’S SHORT LINE RAILROADS

Details

• Creators:
  McCarthy, Patrick ; Zhai, Zhe
• Corporate Creators:
  Georgia Institute of Technology
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration ; Georgia. Department of Transportation. Office of Performance-Based Management & Research
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Short line railroads
  • Railroad facilities
  • Economic impacts
  • Short Line
  • Railroad
  • Economic Impacts
  • Infrastructure
  • RIMS II
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA-GA-18-1608
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Georgia ; United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  Georgia Institute of Technology
• Abstract:
  Short line railroads are critical to Georgia’s transportation infrastructure and support the efficient movement of goods into and out of the State. Twenty-nine short line railroads operate in Georgia, six of which operate either partially or totally on 596 miles of rail track that the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) owns. Based on the Bureau of Economic Analysis RIMS II backward-linkage model, this study estimates under different sets of assumptions the economic impacts associated with short line railroad revenues and with GDOT infrastructure spending on these six short line systems. Among the economic impacts, and depending on the assumptions, the study finds that the cumulative impact of the six systems increases annual output in the range of $2.8-$14.5 million, increases annual earnings in the range of $0.7-$4.1 million, and generates annual value-added in the range of $1.4-$7.5 million. Cumulatively, these systems annually add 10 - 93 jobs on average.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  PI No. 0014918
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/35685/dot_35685_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.31 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:e00ebe7892672c4577c21531ad7c5d5d8f614c47ce75f7b143f94fb5e12f201c