Efficient railway transportation helps ensure both population mobility and a functioning supply chain, but railway reliability is often threatened by inadequate capacity, aging infrastructure, increasing freight costs, and potential security threats. RAND researchers have explored and recommended different approaches to modernizing rail systems and keeping them safe.
Report
This report presents analysis that compares the PLANET long-distance model and the Department for Transport's long-distance model (LDM) and helps to inform which components of both models might be used to develop an improved HS2 Ltd model.
Commentary
Good data can inform decision makers about what really works—how best to relieve congestion and improve supply-chain connectivity to make freight transportation—and hence the U.S. economy—more competitive, write Mortimer Downey, Joseph Schofer, and Johanna Zmud.
Report
With 2012 being our 20th anniversary year, the report features some of our recent work while reflecting on how RAND Europe has developed and remained relevant over the last two decades. It highlights selected research and corporate activity in 2011.
Report
This report provides new empirical evidence from a study into the factors influencing demand for high-speed rail in the UK. The forecasts developed from these models will inform the debate around the future of high-speed rail in the UK.
Journal Article
In this article, we present an application of jointly estimated attitudinal and choice models to a real-world transport study, looking at the role of latent attitudes in a rail travel context. Our results show the impact that concern with privacy, liberty and security, and distrust of business, technology and authority have on the desire for rail travel in the face of increased security measures, as well as for universal security checks.
Journal Article
To what extent would people sacrifice their right to privacy and liberty in exchange for potentially safer and more secure travel? This paper uses a stated choice experiment to quantify individuals' tradeoffs between privacy and security within a real-life context, namely rail travel in the UK. Using a nationwide sample, the empirical analysis yields the importance of improvements in the security infrastructure and identifies areas of concern with regard to privacy and liberty controlling for travel related factors.
News Release
The long-term efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. freight transportation system is threatened by bottlenecks, inefficient use of some parts of the infrastructure components, vulnerability to disruptions, and crucial environmental and energy concerns.
Report
Discusses whether and how policymakers should invest in expanding U.S. rail infrastructure to help accommodate projected increases in freight traffic.
News Release
Pennsylvania leaders have an active role to play in coordinating public and private efforts to improve the safety and security of Pennsylvania's extensive and complex railroad system.
Report
Reviews Pennsylvania's statutory and regulatory authority over rail, recent studies and actions regarding rail safety and security, and actions taken by other states, and includes a qualitative analysis of risks to rail infrastructure.
Multimedia
Building on analyses that RAND conducted between 2002 and 2004, this presentation explores the options for strengthening the physical infrastructure of a potential future independent Palestinian state.
Report
U.S. railroads have improved their productivity, but increasing freight volume threatens to cause performance-degrading capacity constraints. This report describes the current state of railroad capacity and performance for freight transportation.
News Release
U.S. communities depend on reliable, safe, and secure rail systems, but such systems are vulnerable to terrorist attack. A framework developed for rail security planners and policymakers can help guide cost-effective plans to secure their rail systems from attacks.
Report
This book explains a framework that security planners and policymakers can use for cost-effective rail-security planning. It focuses specifically on terrorism risk, which is a function of threat, vulnerability, and consequences.
Research Brief
This fact sheet describes a framework for assessing the availability of publicly available information for planning attacks on the U.S. air, rail, and sea transportation infrastructure and the results of applying the framework in a red-team exercise.
Report
Describes a framework to guide assessments of the availability of data regarding U.S. anti- and counterterrorism systems, countermeasures, and defenses for planning attacks on the U.S. air, rail, and sea transportation infrastructure.
News Release
May 9, 2007 news release: RAND Supply Chain Policy Center to Research Critical Issues in Freight Transportation.
Commentary
Published commentary by RAND staff: Tighten Up Mass-Transit Security, in Newsday.
Report
Presents a robust operational methodology that enables the user to assess possible alternative investments aimed at improving the quality of the suburban rail services to and from Paris.
Report
Presents the estimation results of the models that have been developed to appraise the monetary benefits of various possible ways to improve the regularity of the Paris suburban train network.
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