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The Economics of Railroad Safety

  • Book
  • © 1998

Overview

Authors:
  1. Ian Savage

    1. Department of Economics and the Transportation Center, Northwestern University, USA

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Part of the book series: Transportation Research, Economics and Policy (TRES)

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Table of contents (21 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Setting the Scene

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 1-9

  3. Historical Trends

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 11-19

  4. Public Policy

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 21-28

  5. How Safe Are American Railroads?

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 29-32

  6. Risk Evaluation

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 33-42

  7. The Story so Far

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 43-46

  8. Economic Theory of Bilateral Accidents

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 47-57

  9. Highway Grade Crossings

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 59-72

  10. Trespassers

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 73-78

  11. Occupational Injuries

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 79-92

  12. Benchmark Levels of Operational Safety

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 93-98

  13. Market Power

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 99-103

  14. Imperfect Information

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 105-112

  15. Customer Rationality

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 113-114

  16. Railroad Myopia

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 115-121

  17. Externalities

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 123-129

  18. Non-Regulatory Responses

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 131-138

  19. Federal Safety Regulations

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 139-148

  20. Evaluation of Regulations

    • Ian Savage
    Pages 149-164
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Economics and the Transportation Center, Northwestern University, USA

    Ian Savage

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