A system for determining the sources of delay of a transportation mean includes a wayside sub-system, a locomotive sub-system, a railcar sub-system, a a yard sub-system, a schedule sub-system, a monitoring and diagnostic sub-system and a management sub-system. Real-time collected data from the sub-systems are compared to a standard data set to identify problem areas without human intervention. Utilizing a list of top problem areas, transportation means managers are able to identify corrective actions to eliminate or minimize the sources of problem areas. In addition, customers or users of specific transportation means are able to properly select the appropriate transportation means.