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Abstract
The share of the grain and oilseed harvest moved by rail has been declining since 1980, when
the Federal Motor Carrier Act and the Staggers Rail Act were passed. Large structural changes
associated with these acts affected the decline over the following two decades. Yet, even though the
large structural changes had already taken place by 2000, the rail market share of grain and oilseed
transportation has continued to decline. This paper develops a state-level statistical model for 21
of the top grain-producing states (which produce 86.6% of all grain and oilseeds) to investigate
which major factors have been responsible for the decrease in the rail market share of grain and
oilseed transportation since 2001. Twenty variables are tested in the model, and 10 are found to
have a statistically significant impact on rail market share. Of these, three are most important in
the decrease of rail market share: ethanol production, biodiesel production, and the concentration
of animal feeding.