Citation

Witt J. J. Transp. Res. Forum 2004; 43(1): 5-17.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Transportation Research Forum)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Railroad abandonment in Kansas has increased significantly in recent decades, leading to diversion of a significant amount of grain tonnage from short line railroad shipment to truck shipment. In this paper, a methodology is developed for estimating highway safety effects resulting from rail line closure. It improves upon the previously developed methodology by recognizing both the highway safety costs and the highway safety benefits of rail line closure. The new methodology is applied to a region of western Kansas with potentially endangered short line railroads. Highway safety costs are estimated by determining the additional truck traffic that will be generated by the abandonments, estimating the accidents that will be generated by this traffic, and multiplying these accidents by their costs. Highway safety benefits are estimated by determining the number of collisions that are averted by eliminating highway-rail crossing accidents and multiplying these avoided accidents by what they would have cost. Results show that short line abandonment in the study area would result in net annual highway safety benefits of $1.4 million.