STUDIES IN RAILROAD OPERATION AND ECONOMICS. VOLUME 9: RELIABILITY IN RAILROAD OPERATIONS. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Staring in February 1971, Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a study of rail freight service reliability for FRA. With the assistance of eight major railroad, MIT first established measures of reliability, quantified current railroad performance and isolated some of the causes of unreliability. The conclusions of this phase are that unreliability does exist, that the problems are in yards, that unreliability can be improved in the short run by changes in rail operations and that a dialogue with shippers is critical.