Railroads can save significant sums of money by deploying multi-sensor track scanners on connected trains to detect and roadbed problems that could cause accidents. However, uncertainties about performance return-on-investment have impeded the development deployment such sensor systems. This research develops a budget model both manufacturers railroads use decide suitable trade-off between pric...

(Open) Standards Wars In “The Art of Standards Wars,” Robert Shapiro gives a brief overview of several major standards wars in business history. The oldest one he mentions is the battle over standard railroad gauge between the Northern and Southern United States. The development of railroads in the United States was done with little coordination, so that by 1860, there were seven different rail...

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...

Between the mid-nineteenth century and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Spain undertook a sustained process of economic growth and structural change, but was unable to converge with the core European economies. The reasons behind Spain’s failure to converge have been a subject of debate among historians for decades. This dissertation aims to analyze the role played by infrastructu...

The publication of this book could not have come at a more appropriate time. A convergence of factors, particularly related to globalization, congestion and energy prices, has propelled a renewed interest about the role of rail in the North American transport system, both for passengers and freight. Train Time seeks to address this ambitious task with an abundance of facts and clever observations.