The Economics of Railroad Safety

The Economics of Railroad Safety

Author: Ian Savage

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 146155571X

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The American public has a fascination with railroad wrecks that goes back a long way. One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. At the Iowa State fair in 1896, 89,000 people paid $20 each, at current prices, to see two trains, throttles wide open, collide with each other. "Head-on Joe" Connolly made a business out of "cornfield meets" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years. Picture books of train wrecks do good business presumably because a train wreck can guarantee a spectacular destruction of property without the messy loss of life associated with aircraft accidents. A "train wreck" has also entered the popular vocabulary in a most unusual way. When political manoeuvering leads to failure to pass the federal budget, and a shutdown is likely of government services, this is widely called a "train wreck. " In business and team sports, bumbling and lack of coordination leading to a spectacular and public failure to perform is also called "causing a train wreck. " A person or organization who is disorganized may be labelled a "train wreck. " It is therefore not surprising that the public perception of the safety of railroads centers on images of twisted metal and burning tank cars, and a general feeling that these events occur quite often. After a series of railroad accidents, such as occurred in the winter of 1996 or the summer of 1997, there are inevitable calls that government "should do something.


Rail Safety

Rail Safety

Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Surface Transportation

Publisher:

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13:

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Railway Economics

Railway Economics

Author: Association of American Railroads. Bureau of Railway Economics

Publisher: Chicago, University Press [1912]

Published: 1912

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13:

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Death Rode the Rails

Death Rode the Rails

Author: Mark Aldrich

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Published: 2009-11-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780801894022

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For most of the 19th and much of the 20th centuries, railroads dominated American transportation. They transformed life and captured the imagination. Yet by 1907 railroads had also become the largest cause of violent death in the country, that year claiming the lives of nearly twelve thousand passengers, workers, and others. In Death Rode the Rails Mark Aldrich explores the evolution of railroad safety in the United States by examining a variety of incidents: spectacular train wrecks, smaller accidents in shops and yards that devastated the lives of workers and their families, and the deaths of thousands of women and children killed while walking on or crossing the street-grade tracks. The evolution of railroad safety, Aldrich argues, involved the interplay of market forces, science and technology, and legal and public pressures. He considers the railroad as a system in its entirety: operational realities, technical constraints, economic history, internal politics, and labor management. Aldrich shows that economics initially encouraged American carriers to build and operate cheap and dangerous lines. Only over time did the trade-off between safety and output—shaped by labor markets and public policy—motivate carriers to develop technological improvements that enhanced both productivity and safety. A fascinating account of one of America's most important industries and its dangers, Death Rode the Rails will appeal to scholars of economics and the history of transportation, technology, labor, regulation, safety, and business, as well as to railroad enthusiasts.


The Geography of Transport Systems

The Geography of Transport Systems

Author: Jean-Paul Rodrigue

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-07-18

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 1136777326

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Mobility is fundamental to economic and social activities such as commuting, manufacturing, or supplying energy. Each movement has an origin, a potential set of intermediate locations, a destination, and a nature which is linked with geographical attributes. Transport systems composed of infrastructures, modes and terminals are so embedded in the socio-economic life of individuals, institutions and corporations that they are often invisible to the consumer. This is paradoxical as the perceived invisibility of transportation is derived from its efficiency. Understanding how mobility is linked with geography is main the purpose of this book. The third edition of The Geography of Transport Systems has been revised and updated to provide an overview of the spatial aspects of transportation. This text provides greater discussion of security, energy, green logistics, as well as new and updated case studies, a revised content structure, and new figures. Each chapter covers a specific conceptual dimension including networks, modes, terminals, freight transportation, urban transportation and environmental impacts. A final chapter contains core methodologies linked with transport geography such as accessibility, spatial interactions, graph theory and Geographic Information Systems for transportation (GIS-T). This book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field, with a broad overview of its concepts, methods, and areas of application. The accompanying website for this text contains a useful additional material, including digital maps, PowerPoint slides, databases, and links to further reading and websites. The website can be accessed at: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans This text is an essential resource for undergraduates studying transport geography, as well as those interest in economic and urban geography, transport planning and engineering.


Railroad Safety

Railroad Safety

Author: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment

Publisher:

Published: 1979

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13:

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Rail Safety

Rail Safety

Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Surface Transportation

Publisher:

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13:

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Rail Safety Legislation

Rail Safety Legislation

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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Railroad Safety

Railroad Safety

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce

Publisher:

Published: 1949

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13:

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Railroad Safety

Railroad Safety

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Transportation and Hazardous Materials

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13:

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