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Abstract
The Chaffee Junction to Chaffee Line segment (the Chaffee Line) has been analyzed using North Dakota's rail-line benefit-cost model that has been employed in previous studies. The methodology has been reviewed and accepted by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). It was updated in 1992 so that the analysis period, discount rate, and treatment of project costs were consistent with the new FRA benefit-cost procedures. The benefit-cost methodology is described in Appendix C. Only the major assumptions, costing techniques, and results are included in this section.
The analysis was performed by the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute using data provided by the Red River Valley and Western Railroad and transportation statistics maintained by the UGPTI. Using a discount rate of four percent, the overall benefit cost ratio for the project is 3.43. The project outlay will be recovered from discounted benefits by the year 2000. Thus, the pay-back period is approximately seven years.
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