Rail/Intermodal Roundtable: Full head of steam

While the recent recession has been declared the worst economic downturn in nearly a century, the nation’s freight railroads never missed a beat. In fact, they continued rolling on a bullish path, spending $21.8 billion of their own private capital in 2008 and $20.2 billion in 2009. As a consequence, the 140,000-mile rail network serving shippers has not only been maintained—it’s been modernized.

But now there’s a new worry in the shipping community: new regulatory laws. Opponents argue that unbalanced legislation will result in lower rates for some, while penalizing others. Add to this the concern that railroads will suddenly put a halt to new investment as a hedge against more unforeseen intervention.

To put the rail market into better perspective, we’ve gathered four leading analysts to share their perspectives and help rail shippers better understand how they’ll need to plan their rail and intermodal moves heading into 2011.

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