A Process Function for Rail Linehaul Operations

摘要

Like many productive activities, rail freight transportation may be divided into various processes. One division that has been used before is: (1) assembly, (2) linehaul, (3) loading and unloading. This paper is concerned with the second of these exclusively. The aim is to develop a production function for the linehaul process (hereafter called a linehaul process function). Such a process function is interesting in its own right: with it one may investigate various productivity relationships, isoquants, and returns to scale for the linehaul process. The process function may also be used to examine the behavior of linehaul costs. In addition, it would be possible to synthesize railway costs if process functions for all three processes were available. In this paper, all but the last of these is attempted.