A business analysis of the Appenian railroad system divided its long-distance passenger routes into two categories: rural routes and interurban routes  The analysis found that, unlike the interurban routes, few rural routes carried a high enough passenger volume to be profitable
Closing unprofitable rural routes, however, will not necessarily enhance the profitability of the whole system, since
a large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes