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The purpose of this study is to compare the competition and productivity of the US freight rail transportation industry for the past 41 years (1980 ∼ 2020), which consists of the two periods, before and after the abolishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1995.

This study investigates any relationships between the market concentration index values and labor productivity values in the separate two periods, and how the existence of a regulatory body in the freight transportation market impacted the productivity of the freight rail transportation industry by using a Cobb–Douglas production function on annual financial statement data from the US stock exchange market.

This study found that, after the abolishment of the ICC: (1) the rail industry became less competitive, (2) even if the rail industry had an increasing labor productivity trend, there was a strong negative correlation between the market concentration index and labor productivity and (3) the rail industry’s total factor productivity was decreased.

This study is to find empirical evidence of the effect of the ICC abolishment on the competition and productivity levels in the US freight rail transportation industry using a continuous data set of 41-year financial statements, which is unique compared to previous studies.

The purpose of this paper is to identify current impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in the Australian non-bulk freight market.

A systematic literature review was adapted to identify the impediments and challenge themes from 1,081 studies available on the Australian rail industry. To select the studies relevant to the research question, a tollgate criterion was then deployed. Impediments were identified by a structured data synthesis process and a heuristic algorithm was developed to explore the possible relationships between the impediments and challenges.

Four major themes are apparent, each of which presents the rail industry with challenges in the non-bulk freight market. “Infrastructural inefficiencies and the need for further integration” was ranked as the main rail industry challenge, while “environmental concerns and the associated costs of externalities” was the least. In addition, across the four themes data synthesis identified 43 impediments from purely policy related to technical and operational aspects.

The major implication of this review is the identification of impediments that have no linkage to the four industry challenges as revealed by stakeholders in the literature. That means that the rail industry has been dealing with a number of issues that have not been explored and studied in depth either by practitioners or academics. The underlying elements of impediments in this group are perceived as managerial, organisational and leadership factors. The rail industry has failed to manage its organisational ties across the system, both horizontally and vertically. This issue has been intensified as the result of complex interactions between different transport modes and operators associated with the non-bulk freight sector.

For the first time in the Australian context, this study provides an en masse and summarised picture of impediments to the competitiveness of the rail industry in the non-bulk freight market by systematically reviewing the reports generated by different stakeholders in the last ten years. The outcomes will assist the rail industry and government to understand impediments impacting on the quality of rail freight services that may lead to collaboration on decision-making and investment strategies.

This paper aims to explore why harmonisation, given its potential, is so difficult to achieve. It analyses the issues and challenges in achieving harmonisation of training and development across an industry.

The approach was a meta-analysis of six research projects undertaken in the Australian rail industry. These projects varied in duration from 12-24 months. Between 2009 and 2013, rail employees in varying roles and levels of seniority, including middle managers, front-line supervisors, rail incident investigators, track workers and drivers, were interviewed (n = 176) and surveyed (n = 341).

The meta-analysis identified a range of characteristics associated with harmonisation. It uncovered three categories of harmonisation, seven types of risk modelled in a layered risk pyramid and analysed key structural, environmental and organisational barriers to harmonisation. The paper concludes that harmonisation struggles to gain strategic significance and is hampered by operational pragmatism.

There are few published papers examining harmonisation across companies or based on meta-analyses, especially qualitatively. Despite limitations of insufficient detail to allow close analysis, potentially variable quality data across projects from which to develop a meta-analysis and the danger of comparing apples with oranges, more attempts using this approach would be helpful in gaining nuanced insights into an industry.

Achieving industry harmonisation requires significant change in the mindset of executives. To enhance the chances of harmonisation, there is need for a strong national entity with overview of the entire industry, high-quality training and development resources and activities and cost-benefit analyses and active campaigns. A major outcome of this research is the risk pyramid, which can be used by managers as a strategic evaluation tool. By using such tools based on sound research, leaders can be equipped to make informed decisions and reduce downstream risks.

This research has value in extending the literature in two main ways: through examining the notion of harmonisation across an industry as distinct from within organisations that has been the focus of most studies and through using qualitative meta-analysis in a field dominated by quantitative approaches. It analyses the grey areas between rhetoric about its potential and difficulties in its achievement.

The purpose of this research is to focus on the serious but under‐examined incidence of fatalities and injuries among rail trackworkers. It identifies the pressures on trackwork, locating them within an analysis of the economic structure of the privatised rail industry and illustrates the consequences of these pressures at the operational level.

A series of semi‐structured interviews was held with management representatives of the infrastructure and maintenance companies, rail safety bodies and officials and representatives of the RMT. These were supplemented by focus‐group style discussions with track maintenance workers in Scotland and the North of England. The paper then relates these qualitative data to the analysis of recent major incidents which have involved fatalities of rail employees.

Within the structure of the post‐privatised industry, improvements to the safety regime are always in danger of being constrained by countervailing economic and organisational pressures. There is a marked discrepancy between the higher level safety structure and the experience of employees at track level.

There is virtually no workforce input into the construction of safety procedures despite the fact that rail workers' commitment to the industry represents a large untapped resource for safety improvement.

The rail industry in general, and trackwork in particular, have been conspicuously under‐researched since privatisation.

The chemical industry is struggling to improve its supply chain performance, and improved asset utilization may help get the industry headed in the right direction. Since most chemical firms own or lease their rail fleets, rail utilization can have a substantial impact on overall asset utilization. The paper aims to focus on current managerial processes and situational factors that impact railcar asset performance.

Rail car cycle data are analyzed, focusing on major sources of variation in transit inventory as railcars move from plant to customer and back.

Findings include the importance of establishing and adhering to policies regarding supply chain practices; substantial differences exist between hopper and tank car performance; distance is not a major predictor of total cycle time variance; and vendor‐managed inventory relationships can operate with less customer inventory.

This paper addresses only one component of supply chain performance: railcar cycle time. Further analysis is needed to investigate differences between hopper car and tank car transit times. Additional research should also involve the railroad companies as participants in chemical firms' supply chains.

The paper provides several practical recommendations for chemical company supply chain managers relating to process controls, focusing on large customer accounts, managing transit time and variation of rail cars between plant and factory. The findings and recommendations can be applied across many industries.

This paper focuses on supply chain practices in the chemical industry, which has been slow to adopt supply chain practices. In particular, this paper investigates railcar coordination as one means of enhancing supply chain performance, reducing both inventory and transportation assets.

Community rail is a grassroots movement that spans Britain, made up of hundreds of community groups and partnerships that engage people with their railways and stations and provide a bridge between the rail industry and the public at a local level. The movement has grown up from the grassroots, but it has also been increasingly supported and nurtured by the rail industry, with train operators proactively encouraging its spread and development. They, and national and devolved governments, recognise the value of community rail, and its contribution to social inclusion, sustainable development and the railway’s ability to prosper and serve passengers and communities well, now and in the future. This idea is supported by passenger data showing that railway lines with community rail partnerships – working to enhance, promote and aid access to those lines – outperform comparable lines. A swathe of qualitative evidence shows community rail partnerships and station groups having a demonstrable impact on their localities and people’s lives, and appreciation of this role by industry leaders. The many examples of community rail volunteers and practitioners bringing about positive change resonate with academic research exploring how civic engagement and local efficacy and communications can support change, particularly with regard to sustainable behaviours and development. A range of researchers argue that localised, interactive engagement and communications may be the key, when it comes to bringing about the major shifts in behaviour needed to address the global, existential threat posed by the climate crisis, which unsustainable behaviours and policies have brought about. In this way, evidence suggests that engaging communities with their railways, and local transport networks generally, is critical, both to these networks operating in a truly sustainable manner and to achieving inter- and intra-generational equity within the communities they serve.

The paper aims to examine the role, funding and status of Network Rail, a very significant example of New Labour's attempt to operationalise the “third way”. The analysis of Network Rail is used to critique the “third way” approach to policy‐making in Britain.

The paper examines Network Rail, and the significant changes that have occurred since its creation, in the context of the claims originally made for the company by Transport Secretary Byers. It employs critical financial analysis and non‐financial performance indicators to examine the “third way” approach to rail privatisation, drawing on the work of its leading supporter in the UK, Giddens, and its leading critic, Callinicos.

The paper demonstrates that Network Rail is an expensive mechanism for channelling public money to private companies. It argues that the “third way” is really a smoke screen for the neo‐liberal ideology, behind which there is a continuing transfer of wealth from taxpayers to the private sector.

The paper focuses on one significant example of the “third way” approach to policy making. It demonstrates the strength of the neo‐liberal ideology, particularly the belief in the value of privatisation, in the UK.

The findings of the paper have implications for public policy and for those affected by rail privatisation, including employees, passengers and taxpayers.

Researchers and practitioners working in the area of public sector management and reforms should find the paper of value.

Etihad Rail Company is planning to implement a mega infrastructure project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They have included freight rail system as part of the 2030 Abu Dhabi economic vision and the UAE national Charter 2021. The plan is to link the UAE’s main cities via the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) border. This ambitious project presents a formidable task for the Etihad Rail Company and the region as there is no previous railway history of this kind. The project requires coordination of rail standards from East of Ghwefatet and the Northern Emirates cities and will ultimately be combined with the Western Saudi Arabia borders. The transportation system in the region will be improved greatly with the introduction of a cargo and passenger railway system in addition to the current road system and other means of transportation. The Etihad railway network is the first infrastructure project in the UAE and it will bring economic, strategic, social and environmental changes to the country. This case aims to present an overview of the strategic management dimensions of the Etihad Rail and the processes involved. This case will analyze whether Etihad’s top management team should make a decision to focus only on freight rail or to include passenger transportation as well. Many questions will be addressed in this paper such as the following: What steps should Etihad take in order to start passenger rail? Will economical, strategic and environmental aspects affect it? And if so, how? The case will focus on the analysis of the different aspects of Etihad Rail by using strategic management tools as guidance for implementation and determining its success factors.

The purpose of this paper is to provide description and analysis of how a traditional industry is currently using e‐learning, and to identify how the potential of e‐learning can be realised whilst acknowledging the technological divide between younger and older workers.

An exploratory qualitative methodology was employed to analyse three key questions: How is the Australian rail industry currently using e‐learning? Are there age‐related issues with the current use of e‐learning in the rail industry? How could e‐learning be used in future to engage different generations of learners in the rail industry? Data were collected in five case organisations from across the Australian rail industry.

Of the rail organisations interviewed, none believed they were using e‐learning to its full potential. The younger, more technologically literate employees are not having their expectations met and therefore retention of younger workers has become an issue. The challenge for learning and development practitioners is balancing the preferences of an aging workforce with these younger, more “technology‐savvy”, learners and the findings highlight some potential ways to begin addressing this balance.

The findings identified the potential for organisations (even those in a traditional industry such as rail) to better utilise e‐learning to attract and retain younger workers but also warns against making assumptions about technological competency based on age.

Data were gathered across an industry, and thus this paper takes an industry approach to considering the potential age‐related issues with e‐learning and the ways it may be used to meet the needs of different generations in the workplace.

Deregulation shifts the responsibility for mitigation of agency problems from the regulatory parties to the firms' shareholders. We investigate whether and how governance structure changes in response to the dynamics of the new business environment after the Regulatory Reform Act of 1994 for the US trucking industry. We show that deregulation increases market competition in the trucking industry. The deregulated trucking firms not only adjust internal governance structure but also alter antitakeover provisions to adapt themselves to the competitive status of business environment after deregulation.