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The Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 provided for the restructuring of the railroad system in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States. The Secretary of Transportation was required to submit a report containing his recommendations and conclusions for rail service between and within geographic zones of the region and describing the criteria used. Principal conclusions and recommendations of the DOT report were that existing interstate mainlines should be consolidated into a high‐volume upgraded network, local rail service requirements should be filled by a single carrier in a given geographic area, rail facilities which are not self‐sustaining should be abandoned unless subsidized by state or local transportation agencies, and rail competition should be maintained only over the interstate network from traffic centers that generate a minimum of eight daily trains traveling more than 200 miles in the same direction. The DOT report alerted the public to the dangers which threaten the continuation of rail service in the region, but the Rail Services Planning Office found a number of errors in the DOT report. The criterion of profitability itself can be criticized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]