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A Restored Competitive Advantage for Cities?

by Matt Mayrl on April 21, 2008 in All Politics is Local: An Urban Policy Blog

The Washington Post published this article today, detailing the resurgence of the railrod industry in U.S. To briefly summarize: As oil prices continue to rise, rail freight traffic is increasing dramatically. Because rail fright shipping has a 3-to-1 fuel efficiency advantage over 18-wheelers, the amount of tonnage shipped via rail is projected to almost double by 2035.

How does this relate to urban policy? Well, the agglomeration of industry and people we see in cities was initially driven by businesses needing to locate close to rail lines, before the modern trucking industry evolved. And, cities still retain extensive rail infrastructure. To the extent that businesses can realize cost efficiencies by locating near rail lines, the resurgence of the rail freight industry provides cities with a competitive advantage that can contribute to cities’ revitalization.

Written by Matt Mayrl · Filed Under All Politics is Local: An Urban Policy Blog 

Matthew Mayrl is a second-year public policy student at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-chair of the school's urban policy professional interest group. He enjoys places of density, diversity, functioning mass transit, dive bars, and good restaurants. An occasional contributor to the The Citizen, he looks forward to inculcating more people with the urban gospel through this blog.

Comments

One Response to “A Restored Competitive Advantage for Cities?”

  1. Patrick Thrasher on April 22nd, 2008 9:34 am

    I encourage everyone interested in such topics to read John McPhee’s Uncommon Carriers, which, though it doesn’t focus particularly on the urban aspects of rail freight transit, does discuss in fascinating detail how coal freight in this country works (and the quantity of coal we consume for power daily’ll prompt you to turn off the lights). Also, even More efficient than rail transit? Huge barges on rivers and interior waterways: he has a chapter on grain barges on (I think) the Ohio River. v v interesting.

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