U.S. Railroads - A Military Asset

Abstract

U.S. railroads collectively are the largest volume haulers of domestic freight both in peace and at war. However, the rail industry today is essentially only capable of carrying freight at the current peacetime levels and is not capable of increasing this volume as fast as would probably be required during a total mobilization. If this increase is greater than the rails can absorb, than other less efficient users of energy and personnel resources will be required to carry this additional freight. Strategic planners must allocate scarce resources to provide an economical means to achieve the domestic transport end. This is not being done and, as a result, this nation will expend more scarce resources than is necessary in a total mobilization. The U.S. railroads are a military asset and strategic planners need to be aware of the capabilities of domestic rail freight service in the event of a total mobilization.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1985
Accession Number
ADA156867

Entities

People

  • L. I. Jeffries

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Civil War
  • Department Of Defense
  • Freight Transportation
  • Governments
  • Management Personnel
  • Manpower
  • Pennsylvania
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Rail Transportation
  • Railroad Cars
  • Railroads
  • Second World War
  • Security
  • Transportation
  • War
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Economics
  • Industrial Economics