Final System Plan for Restructuring Railroads in the Northeast and Midwest Region Pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973: Volume II, Part III, Light Density Lines and Community Impact

Details

• Corporate Creators:
  United States Railway Association
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Abandonment Bankruptcy Branch Lines Consolidations Financing Nationalization Ownership Profitability Socioeconomic Factors
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Volume II, Part III
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States Railway Association
• Abstract:
  Volume 2 of the United States Railway Association’s Final System Plan addresses one of the most difficult implementation problems created by the Northeast and Midwest railroad crisis: how to distinguish rail properties that should be incorporated into a financially viable Conrail system from light-density lines whose continued operation would require public subsidy, state or local action, transfer to another carrier, abandonment, or preservation for future public use. Prepared pursuant to the 3R Act and submitted as the final statutory restructuring plan, the FSP required additional financial authority and implementation amendments that were later supplied through the 4R Act. The document reflects Congress’s dual mandate: to create a self-sustaining, for-profit freight railroad while protecting communities and shippers where essential but uneconomic service might otherwise be lost. The volume reevaluates branch lines using updated traffic, revenue, cost, rehabilitation, and service data; identifies lines capable of supporting economically viable service; and explains the treatment of lines excluded from the restructured system. Its analysis concludes that the proposed system would preserve service to 97.8 percent of the traffic handled by the railroads in reorganization, while recommending approximately 5,757 miles of active light-density roadway for abandonment or subsidy because those lines carried a small share of traffic but imposed substantial operating losses and rehabilitation costs.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:19e79d4aa9df35c7d8f8eef6d86077c6334102fd5a84e6adf524aad0cb15272bc103a51ec3e7929f9ffdb73a30f62553fdb31fe3a9b775e573250898da142263
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/90540/dot_90540_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 23.78 MB ]