A business analysis of the Appenian railroad system divided its long-d

Question

Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

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) a large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes

(B) within the last two decades several of the least used rural routes have been closed and their passenger services have been replaced by buses

(C) the rural routes were all originally constructed at least one hundred years ago, whereas some of the interurban routes were constructed recently for new high-speed express trains

(D) not all of Appenia’s large cities are equally well served by interurban railroad services

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

ID: 500270
CR04192

broall · Accepted Answer

(A) A large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes
 Correct. A large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes have their journeys on rural routes, this means that rural routes somewhat contribute to the profit made in interurban routes. In worst cases, if closing rural unprofitable routes, the passenger's journeys will be effected. Hence, the profit made in interurban routes will be effected rather than increase.

(B) within the last two decades several of the least used rural routes have been closed and their passenger services have been replaced by buses
 Incorrect. If this choice is true, then closing unprofitable rural routes will somewhat decrease overhead cost and increase profit.

(C) the rural routes were all originally constructed at least one hundred years ago, whereas some of the interurban routes were constructed recently
for new high-speed express trains
 Incorrect. If the rural routes were rather old, then closing them seems rational.

(D) not all of Appenia’s large cities are equally well served by interurban railroad services
 Irrelevant. The passage is talking about rural routes, not urban routes.

(E) the greatest passenger volume, relative to the routes’ capacity, is not on either category of long-distance routes but is on suburban commuter routes
 Irrelevant. Also, if the greatest passenger volume is on suburban commuter routes, then closing unprofitable rural routes must cause an increase profit.

aj33 · Answer

There is a link in this question. 
How does shutting down one not help the entire system
or
shut down the rural -> No improvement to Rural +Urban(= Total System)

Only logical answer is A.

Or lets find something that says that my total revenue will not increase because expense will not decrease

(B) within the last two decades several of the least used rural routes have been closed and their passenger services have been replaced by buses
Replace by buses. So does this tell me that my total will increase or decrease

(C) the rural routes were all originally constructed at least one hundred years ago, whereas some of the interurban routes were constructed recently
for new high-speed express trains
There was something else that happened. Does this say that there was no effect. There may or may not have been an affect

(D) not all of Appenia’s large cities are equally well served by interurban railroad services
So? what do i do with that

(E) the greatest passenger volume, relative to the routes’ capacity, is not on either category of long-distance routes but is on suburban commuter routes
If it is not on any one. So what is the use of shutting down any one of them.

AlexGenkins1234 · Answer

Premises:
- Analysis showed 2 categories: R & I.U
- Few R routs have #passengers -> that route is profitable
--
Assumptions:
- Saving the unprofitable routes will either cause no change for the profits or case profits to say higher than if we were to remove those routes. 
Conclusion:
- Closing the unprofitable routes -/-> (overall profit) to rise

- A 
- Since most urban routes are profitable (From the stimulus), and according to this answer choice, if we were to remove those rural routes 2 things might happen:
1. People will find another way to reach the urban routes - in that case the argument will not be strengthened (or weakened).
2. People will chose other means of transportation, and might not even use the urban routes. This strengthen the conclusion.

- B
- Well, if people switched their way only to their rural transportation means, they might still use the urban routes - no influence here.
- In addition, This statement focuses on "few" data points - which means this trend might even be representative - and hence we cannot use it.
- Notice that option A uses the phrase" a large portion..." - which implies the emphasis on significant amount of people.

- C
- This is irrelevant.

- D
- This is irrelevant.

- E
- This is irrelevant.

Abhishek009 · Answer

Capture.PNG Now analyze why - Prethink : 1. Rural Networks may have a prominent role to the whole system 2. There may be a connection between Urban and Rural railway network system and closing one may have adverse effect Lets check the options - Option (A) matches our pre thinking option, hence this is correct answer...

Skywalker18 · Answer

Boil it down - Closing unprofitable routes will not necessarily increase the profitability of the whole system 
Type - Explain 
Pre - thinking - what if the unprofitable routes have a significant contribution to passenger volume for the profitable routes . Closing the unprofitable routes in such a scenario will be counterproductive .

A large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes - Correct answer

anairamitch1804 · Answer

Argument Construction

Situation In the Appenian railroad system, interurban routes generally carry enough passengers to be profitable, but few rural routes do.

Reasoning What would suggest that closing unprofitable rural routes would not enhance the railroad systems profitability?

Any evidence that closing the unprofitable rural routes would
indirectly reduce the profitability of other components of the railroad system would support the conclusion that closing those rural routes will not enhance the system's
profitability. Thus, a statement providing such evidence would logically complete the passage.

A Correct. This suggests that closing the rural routes could discourage many passengers from traveling on the profitable interurban routes as well, thus reducing the profitability of the railroad system as a whole.

B Even if some of the least used rural routes have already been closed, it remains true that most of theremaining rural routes are too little used to be profitable.

C Closing very old routes would be at least as likely to enhance the railroad system's profitability as closing newer routes would be.

D Even if there is better railroad service to some large cities than others, closing unprofitable rural routes could still enhance the system's profitability.

E Even if suburban routes are the most heavily used and profitable, closing underused, unprofitable rural routes could still enhance the system's profitability.

The correct answer is A.

anshul0130 · Answer

KarishmaB   ExpertsGlobal5  - I have a query on option A from sentence correction perspective. Can you pls have a look at it and share your thoughts?

Option A - a large part of the passenger volume on interurban routes is accounted for by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes

in phrase "Is accounted for", for is a preposition and is followed by another preposition rather than by a noun or noun phrase.

Is phrase "by passengers who begin or end their journeys on rural routes a noun phrase" ?

I understand that it's a GMAT sentence, hence it's correct but I want to know how it's correct.

Thanks,
Anshul P

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  PanpaliaAnshul ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here, "is accounted for" is actually a verb phrase, and "by passengers..." is the only preposition phrase.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

KarishmaB · Answer

Active structure: 
A accounts for B 
'accounts for' is a phrasal verb (verb + preposition/adverb makes the verb. Other examples are ask around or hold on etc). It means "explain or justify". 
This is how we would use it in active: Type A passengers account for the passenger volume.

Passive structure
B is accounted for by A
Passenger volume is accounted for by type A passengers.

'for' is not used as a preposition here. It is a part of the verb.

Oppenheimer1945 · Answer

Option B : How changing means of transport not related to reducing profits?

VerbalBot · Answer

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