Freight trains make big comeback in nation's transportation network

[rich1998]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rail3-2010jan03,0,27378.story

Lex

[Heave]

Traffic where I am started to pick up pretty good last few weeks. Used to be one stacktrain, one coal train and a morning slow plus evening slow and amtrack.

Now we have several mornings, several evenings and possibly even rolling meets where one train overtakes another on that dual track main. Those shake the house.

It is not as intense as Operation Iraqi Freedom was in 2003. I can still hear the screech of hundreds of empty flats buster to the wall behind worn out CSX and UP units.

[jward]

rail freight making a comeback is old news. as far back as the mid 1990s, railroads were placing orders for hunderds of new locomotives, bn signed up for 350 emd sd70macs at one time in 1994. you don't make that kind of investment in motive power if you're a dying industry.

in 1980, the low point for railroads,  only union pacific and burlington northern had fleets of over 500 of the same model locomotive, bought new. chessie and n&w had over 500 gp9s each, but these were fleets cobbled together by merger.

in 2010, we have numerous fleets 500 strong, and several over 1000 strong. (union pacific, over 1400 sd70m's,  over 15\600 ac4400cw's; bnsf, almost 1800 c44-9w's; norfolk southern, 1090c40-9w's).....
traffic is down about 25% from the high water mark in 2008. but i logged 24 hour train counts over the years. conrail/ns over horseshoe curve has always outrun the b&o/csx over sand patch by at least 2 to 1. in 2008, my train counts on the former b&o east of cumberland were higher (43 a day) than the conrail was running through greensburg, pa in 1983 (38 per day).....

even in the downturn, rail traffic is way up, and the railroad track is in as good shape as i've ever seen it.