(The following appeared at AltTransport.com on May 23, 2011.)
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Machalaba held an online round table discussion on the future of the freight rail industry with a small group of consultants, lobbyists and federal administrators. They predicted that freight rail will experience spectacular growth over the next 30-50 years, largely because of population expansion and the industry’s reliably cheap shipping rates.
Which is excellent news—from an environmental perspective, rail replaces trucks, airplanes, river barges and other highly-polluting modes of freight transport. Meanwhile, a freight train moves 435 tons one mile on a single gallon of fuel, making it one of the greener methods of moving a large amount of product over vast distances.
Full story: www.alttransport.com