Project: Development of Performance Indicators for Predicting
Railroad Performance
Client: Federal Railroad Administration
Zeta-Tech was hired to examine the history of the Union Pacific/Southern Pacific merger. The policy issue was whether or not the operational problems that occurred during "service meltdown" in 1997 and 1998 had any predictability associated with the events monitored by the federal government.
Zeta-Tech provided a statistical correlation analysis identifying specific predictable relationships between railroad operations failures and later service "received" measurements that rail customers use in managing their logistics.
The report is titled: Identification of Performance Indicators: Based on the Review and Analysis of Selected Performance Data Related to Pre and Post Merger Service on the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific.
Out of more than 18 statistical measurement, ZETA-TECH found strong cause/effect relationships among more than six. Just as importantly, the project identified publicly mandated data that had little or no usefulness in the post merger regulatory review.