News Releases

MBA students at Jayhawk Consulting are working on the railroad

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

BY WAYNE LARSON

"It costs less to build a mile of railway track than it does to lay a mile of highway," said Northern Flyer Alliance (NFA) President Deborah Fischer Stout. "In fact, the ratio for railway track to highway pavement is 18 - 1 in the Oklahoma City area." Economic facts like this are why the KU School of Business' Jayhawk Consulting created a benefit study for the NFA in the fall 2009 semester.

Jayhawk Consulting did its part to help Kansas, as well as Oklahoma and Texas, by working on a benefit study for the NFA. The Wichita, Kan. based non-profit organization wants to expand a passenger railway corridor between Kansas City, Kan., Wichita, Kan., Oklahoma City, and the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.

The Jayhawk Consulting group is made up of specially selected School of Business Master of Business Administration (MBA) students and is overseen by Director of Entrepreneurship Programs Wallace Meyer. The program is a part of KU Entrepreneurship Works for Kansas, whose goal is to stimulate economic development in Kansas through entrepreneurial success.

"Our job at Jayhawk Consulting is to run a benefit research study on how the proposed railway system could provide cities within the corridor with secondary benefits," said Marc Ruiz, a Jayhawk Consulting member and first-year MBA student. He said those benefits could include, but are not limited to, job creation, tourism opportunities and a reduction of traffic on highways.

The study, which was completed by Jayhawk Consulting in late December, will be presented with a cost analysis study done by Amtrak to Kansas government officials as well as Department of Transportation officials from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas in early 2010. "The Amtrak study will dovetail nicely with Jayhawk Consulting's benefit study," said Fischer Stout.

Ruiz and his classmates gained great consulting experience while working with the NFA. "I knew very little about railway travel before starting this project. I had only ridden the train once," said Ruiz. He said the project will prepare him well for his future goal of being a professional consultant. "Being given a project and becoming an expert on it is cool," said Ruiz.

Fischer Stout said her experience with the MBA students at Jayhawk Consulting was great. "The process has been very seamless since the kickoff in mid-September," she said.

The Jayhawk Consulting study has received substantial media coverage. The School of Business program has been covered in the USA Today http://bit.ly/7ECEAI, Lawrence Journal-World http://bit.ly/50pztj, The Wichita Eagle http://bit.ly/8pruHO, Topeka Capita- Journal http://bit.ly/8na3Qs, and on KAKE TV (Wichita, Kan.) http://bit.ly/6PxLIl and KSBI TV (Oklahoma City, Okla.) http://bit.ly/6k0cpY.

Ruiz said he could see himself using the passenger railway corridor if it was created and he lived in the area. However, not one piece of track will be laid until the study is reviewed in 2010. In the mean time, Jayhawk Consulting will continue to work on the railroad, all the live-long day.


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