THE 4,000 miles of train tracks that make up the "Burlington Northern Santa Fe" (BNSF) railway, connecting California to the desert surrounding Barstow, are expected to handle increasing traffic volumes over the next few years.
It's expected that this will be driven by trains loaded with Chinese-made toys, electronics and clothing heading eastwards from US west coast ports to cities across the US.
"China's rise has given a new push to US railroads, which have chugged their way back into the nation's transportation future after losing ground for decades to the trucking industry," reports the Los Angeles Times.
In 2008, international and domestic intermodal cargo accounted for nearly a third of BNSF's revenue. It's a figure that's likely to increase once the US economy recovers from its present downturn.
Warren Buffett, the world's second-richest man, bought the BNSF for US$34 billion in November, which indicated the "renewed importance of railroads in the global supply chain, the report said.
Mr Buffett was said to have described his investment as an "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States."
For its part, Fort Worth-based BNSF has been investing hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to strengthen its Southern California operations in a bid to capture a larger share of the business.
"Within our 28-state network, California is incredibly important to us," BNSF chief executive Matthew Rose was quoted as saying.
"A lot of trade comes through there, a lot gets consumed in California, and a lot gets handled and repackaged there."
The report added that since 1985 the number of ton-miles of freight hauled by the nation's biggest railroads has doubled from 876,984 ton-miles to 1,770,545 in 2007, according to the most recent government figures.
Paul Bingham, managing director of world trade and transportation markets at IHS Global Insight Inc, anticipates this figure will rise 14 per cent within a decade.
Source : EFT, 06.01.10.
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