2001 Railway Trends by Roger Cameron, RAC

1
2001 Railway Trendsby Roger Cameron, RAC

• RAC Regional and Short Line Railway Conference
• Ottawa
• November 2, 2001

2
Project Goals

• To create an electronic industry database
• To facilitate analysis and policy development
• To reduce production / publication time of
  Railway Trends

3
Description

• Loaded the database with 8 editions of Railway
  Trends (12 years of history)
• Built a current year section to load members
  responses
• Current year then consolidated for input to 2001
  Railway Trends
• Provided members with option to use an electronic
  survey template - a more efficient response tool

4
Benefits

• Capability of producing short lines Trends data
  on demand
• One official source of statistics at RACs
  fingertips
• Centralized and consistent data

5
New in 2001 Railway Trends

• 5 years of originated carloads by major commodity
  groups
• Income tax is now reported in Taxes by
  jurisdiction table
• A glossary of definitions and conversion factors

6
RAC to develop a teaching tool for Railway
Trends survey

• Ongoing problem with some survey data not being
  reported
• No records, Do not track, Unavailable
• Good estimates beat missing data
• Simple formulae to be developed and distributed
  to members

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Short lines - Revenue ton miles

• RTM (millions)
• 1998 18,145
• 1999 18,803 increase of 3.6
• 2000 20,895 increase of 11.1

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Short lines - Total Revenues

• millions
• 1998 840
• 1999 866 increase of 3.1
• 2000 910 increase of 5.1

9
Short lines - Total expenses

• millions
• 1998 699
• 1999 728 increase of 4.1
• 2000 794 increase of 9.1

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Short lines - Operating ratio

• 1998 83.3
• 1999 84.0 increase of 0.8
• 2000 87.3 increase of 3.9
• (increase deterioration)

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Growth of Short lines

• 1991 to 2000
• Track operated from 10 to 27
• Originated carloads from 15 to 30

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In conclusion

• The RAC continues to lobby for changes in public
  policy and taxation
• Tools like Railway Trends and the electronic
  database help us in our efforts to produce change
• Thank you very much for your valued participation
  in our annual survey. You are helping us to help
  you!