TY  - BOOK
AU  - Conant, Michael
TI  - Railroad bankruptcies and mergers from Chicago West 1975-2001: financial analysis and regulatory critique
SN  - 9780762310791
U1  - 388 
PY  - 2004///
CY  - Amsterdam
PB  - Jai Press
KW  - Transportation - Deregulation
KW  - Railroads
KW  - Bankruptcy
N2  - Two major U.S. Midwestern railroads, the Rock Island Lines and the Milwaukee Road, filed for bankruptcy after 1975 and the court ordered them dismembered. This study explains the economic factors causing financial failure such as total rail line excess capacity in the region leading to low density of freight traffic; in addition, Labour union rules required unnecessary large train crews. The regulations of the interstate commerce commission aggravated the economic problems by limiting rail line abandonment and mergers designed to improve efficiency. Congress passed the Staggers Act in 1980 to correct a large part of the regulatory limitations to efficient reorganization of the U.S. rail system, but it was too late to save the Rock Island and the Milwaukee Road
ER  -