arec 342 Flashcards
What is URCS? Briefly explain. What is its purpose in U.S. rail regulation?
URCS stands for the Uniform Rail Costing System. URCS is still used by the
Surface Transportation Board to generate a cost of particular rail movements for
regulatory purposes. Since exact costing of rail movements is very tricky due to their
joint and common nature, URCS is intended to help both shippers and railroads compute
properly allocated costs for individual movements. It was developed in the 1970’s and is
composed of a set of well-established operational and accounting relationships designed
to accurately cost out individual rail movements, and by each individual railroad. This
computed cost is then compared to any associated charged freight rate to evaluate
whether or not a shipper has a regulatory case for being severely overcharged by a
railroad for a particular movement.
In a couple of paragraphs, describe the basic rail interswitching policy available for
shipper rate relief in Canada. Feel free to use a drawing to help illustrate how it
works.
What is monopolistic competition? Illustrate this market situation for the long
run using a diagram. What conditions give rise to this situation? Discuss/illustrate in
a couple of paragraphs.
Describe the concept of contestability. Why is it important in the study of
industrial structure? How would you test (i.e. perform data analysis) to check if
contestability exists in a given industry? Discuss.
