The Association of American Railroads said that freight railroads will get US$12 billion capital expenditure in 2011.
The association released a state of the industry report on Wednesday, Great Expectations 2011.
Capital expenditure is rising to keep up with demand for services, namely grain and coal transport.
“Overall, traffic in 2010 was up compared with 2009 for both carload commodity traffic and intermodal trailer and container volume, with year-over-year gains the highest percent-change improvements on record. Of the American commodities and goods shipped overseas, coal and grain far outweigh others in terms of volume moved by rail.”
The report noted that nearly half of America’s electricity supply is derived from coal, and about 70 percent of that coal is hauled over rail. Roughly 25 per cent of rail revenue comes from coal.
Exports got a boost due to flooding in Australia and droughts in Russia and the Ukraine.
“According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal exports through the third quarter of 2010 were up 46.8 percent, to 60.8 million tons, compared with 41.4 million tons total in 2009. In 2010, coal represented 45.4 percent of all rail carload traffic by tons.”
The report also notes that railroad hiring at the end of 2010 was up 5.2 percent over the year before, and railroads are positioned to hire more workers in the coming years.
Michael Allan McCrae wrote this story. You can contact him at [email protected] or @michaelmccrae.
