ITE JOURNAL / NOVEMBER 1999 HIGHWAY-RAILROAD GRADE crossings are a relatively unique and sometimes perilous intersection of two transportation modes. The cost of collisions at these intersections is high in both dollars and human lives. The amount and type of sight distance provided at highway-railroad grade crossings can have significant impacts on safety. The proper calculation of these sight...

Transportation and logistics are fertile areas for modeling. Simulation has traditionally been used in warehousing and inside the distribution center or processing hub in the trucking and package delivery sectors, for baggage systems and passenger queueing in the airline industry, and for detailed models of terminals and yards in the railroad industry. In addition, simulators are used for certa...

public through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161 This document is also available on the FRA Web site at www.fra.dot.gov Final Report July 2001 DOT/FRA/ORD-00/07 U. S. Department of Transportation Research and Special Programs Administration John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center Cambridge, MA 02142-1093 Office of Research and Development Washington,...

For generations of scholars and observers, the "transportation revolution," especially the railroad, has loomed large as a dominant factor in the settlement and development of the United States in the nineteenth century. There has, however, been considerable debate as to whether transportation improvements led economic development or simply followed. Using a newly developed GIS transportation d...

Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has sponsored a research program on alternative detection technologies for railroad right-of-way (ROW) and highway-rail grade crossing applications. In support of this effort, the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) of the U.S. DOT Research and Innovative T...

This paper examines the historical impact of railroads on the American economy. Expansion of the railroad network and decreased trade costs may affect all counties directly or indirectly, an econometric challenge in many empirical settings. However, the total impact on each county can be summarized by changes in that county’s “market access,” a reduced-form expression derived from general equil...

The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the information presented herein. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation University Transportation Centers Program, in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. S...

While there have been many studies of the impact of railroad deregulation on agricultural transportation markets there have been very few that address the impact of railroad mergers on rail grain prices and the distribution of eciency gains. The purpose of this paper is to add to the sparse literature regarding the e€ect of railroad mergers on agricultural transportation markets. Given the eve...

We develop an aerodynamic loading assignment model for intermodal freight trains based on an integer-programming framework to help terminal managers make up more fuel-efficient trains. This is the first use of optimization modeling to address the aerodynamics and energy efficiency of railroad intermodal trains. Several recommendations regarding railway equipment use, operations, and policy are ...