Origin, Purpose, and Status of Project

Abstract

The Northeast Corridor Transportation Project represents an attempt to improve the planning of intercity transportation facilities in the Northeast Corridor by the use of systems analysis and simulation techniques. The Project applied general analyses to the Corridor’s transportation system and determined costs and benefits of nine different intercity passenger transportation systems. The normal practice in planning transportation at the Federal level is to treat each mode separately. The planning of highway transportation, i.e., does not set off against increased costs incurred by competing railroads. In that respect total economic costs may exceed benefits. The Corridor project has simulated, and compared, the operation of nine intercity passenger transportation systems in the Northeast Corridor. Each system is a mix of existing modes as they will be in 1975, and one or more new modes which are technologically feasible feasible for 1975 to 1980. Each system can be described in performance terms and evaluated by benefits from user revenues and by operator costs. Systems range from modest improvements to the existing system to radical new systems for both air and ground.