Estimates were developed of the potential for rail-service termination and on the probable transport-related effects that such loss of service would have on: freight transport system; transport costs of affected rail users; resulting public-sector and private-sector investment requirements; and energy consumption. A survey was conducted of users of four sets of rail lines that had either recently lost service or could lose service in the future. Estimates of the overall effects of abandonment were developed by a computer program from an analysis of survey responses and from waybill data for shipments originating or terminating on the four sets of lines. All results are presented for these four sets of lines, and separately for sixteen commodity groups and for seven regions.

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on railroad abandonments, focusing on: (1) the amount of mileage railroads attempted to abandon; (2) shippers' and local officials' perspectives on the abandonment process; and (3) shippers' views on the effects of rail abandonments on their operations. GAO found that: (1) railroads requested the Interstate Commerce Commission's (ICC) permission to abandon 36,900 miles of rail lines from 1970 through 1985; (2) ICC denied permission for 6.9 percent of that mileage; (3) while many factors influenced railroads' decisions to abandon rail lines, it could not determine the primary causes of abandonments; (4) protesters in abandonment proceedings were generally unaware of the various forms of assistance that ICC could provide to them; (5) protesters and state transportation officials opposed the ICC method of considering railroad opportunity costs in abandonment decisions; (6) many shippers believed that converting to other forms of transportation increased their transportation costs; and (7) abandonments have forced some shippers of bulk commodities to relocate their rail-dependent facilities.