The rail abandonment process: A southern perspective

Technical Report · Thu Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6557142· OSTI ID:6557142

One factor in evaluating the desirability of rail transport for high-level radioactive wastes or spent fuels is the frequency, or lack thereof, with which railroad and railroad lines have been, and are, abandoned. If DOE makes a decision to use the rail option and a line is subsequently abandoned, the choice results in increased cost, time delays and possibly safety problems: Information is therefore needed prior to the decision-making process to evaluate the desirability of the rail shipping option. One result of the abandonments mentioned herein, as well as other later abandonments, is the creation of a US rail system undergoing an evolutionary process in the 1980s as far-reaching as the changes that occurred when the industry was in its infancy a century and-a-half ago. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors leading to some of these changes by tracing the historical development of the rail abandonment process, with particular emphasis on the rise of regional railroads, their problems in the modern era and current trends in rail abandonments as well as their effects on the southeastern United States.

• Research Organization: Southern States Energy Board, Norcross, GA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FC01-87CH10324
• OSTI ID: 6557142
• Report Number(s): DOE/CH/10324-T21; ON: DE93016318
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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