Subject: Data Point: Railroads
Rising Trucking Rates Drive U.S. Companies Back to the Railroad
High fuel prices and rising truck rates are leading shippers to opt for slower, cheaper intermodal transit

American retailers and manufacturers are learning to love trains again.

Companies abandoned the rails in recent years because trucking was a faster, more secure way of moving furniture, food and electronics across the country.

Now that trucking rates are climbing toward their highest levels in four years, some businesses are deciding a slower, cheaper route across the country suits them fine.

“Everybody’s exploring intermodal,” said Milton Magos, vice president of Mexico operations at freight brokerage Traffix. “They want to know how they can make their supply chain more reliable.”
https://www.wsj.com/logistics-...

I know it’s easy to say “why don’t they fix this”, but given the huge disparity between the freight capabilities of a single trainload and 30 or 40 18-wheelers, it seems that the differential should be so big that it would never go away, except in a few “super-time-critical” cases.

But, as people have said to me, “what do you know?”, and sometimes I have to agree with them.