Train Pilot is a very tedious and stressful job. Pilots must be vigilant at all times and its easy for them to lose track of time of shift. In countries like USA the pilots are mandated by law to adhere to 8 hour shifts. If they exceed 8 hours of shift the railroads may be penalized for over-tiring their drivers. The problem happens when the 8 hour shift may end in middle of a journey. In such ...

Railroads play a key role in the transportation of hazardous materials in North America. Rail transport differs from highway transport in several aspects, an important one being that rail transport involves trains in which many railcars carrying hazardous materials travel together. By contrast to truck accidents, it is possible that a train accident may involve multiple hazardous materials cars...

Greater than half of all the fatal injuries on United States railroads are sustained by trespassers. The paper provides a statistical analysis of the demographics of trespassers, the activities they were engaged in, and the causes of injury. It also analyzes trends over time. The paper finds that the risks of injury and death are particularly acute for males in their 20s and 30s. The annual cas...

This paper offers a brief excursion into the comparative history of competition in the railroad industries of the United States and Britain. It starts from the observation that when faced with the unprecedented dynamics and costs of duopolistic and oligopolistic competition, railroad leaders in both countries searched for stability. The response in America appears to have moved from informal co...

Implementation of highway-rail level crossing warning systems, educational programs and research on crossings have all contributed to a steady reduction in the risk of level crossings to North American highway users over the past several decades. Much less attention has been given to understanding the effect of level crossings on train safety and risk. Incidents at highway-rail level crossings ...

I study the conversion of 13,000 miles of railroad track in the U.S. South to standard gauge on May 31 and June 1, 1886 as a large-scale natural experiment in compatibility. Using route-level freight traffic data, I find a large redistribution of traffic from steamships to railroads that declines with distance, with no effect on prices or aggregate shipments due to carriers’ anticompetitive con...

The North American freight railroad network is projected to experience rising transportation demand in the coming decades, leading to increased congestion on many rail lines. Capacity is further strained by increased interest in increasing the speed and frequency of passenger service on shared rail corridors. Since passenger trains in North America predominantly operate on corridors where freig...