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
the greatest passenger volume, relative to the routes' capacity, is not on either category of long-distance routes but is on suburban commuter routes