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Title:The Long-Term Availability of Railroads Services for U.S. Agriculture
Authors:Kimberly Vachal and John Bitzan
University:North Dakota State University
Publication Date:Jun 2000
Report #:MPC-01-116
Project #:MPC-174
TRID #:01088796
Keywords:agriculture, axle load force, consolidations, container traffic, demand, future, grain, grain elevators, investments, marketing, railroad cars, railroads, rates, short line railroads, trend (statistics)
Type:Research Report – MPC Publications

 

Abstract

Future customer demands, service availability, and industry investment decisions will shape the modal marketing decisions of the grain marketing sector. The Delphi survey technique is used to engage a cross-section of grain industry experts in sharing opinions regarding future trends for service, investment and marketing in the grain marketing sector. The survey produces several interesting expectations including (1) further consolidation of the rail and elevator industries, (2) increasing prominence of the HAL cars in grain service, and (3) an increase in rail rates from one to four percent annually over the next decade, (4) expanded use of shuttle/efficiency rail programs for major grains, (5) an increased use of market-based car ordering systems, (6) growth of the short line rail network, and (7) small market-scale, but large volume, increases in the share of grain marketed via container.

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