I think to ton-mile is a metric where rail shines. It’s good for moving really heavy things really far. Trucks aren’t good at shipping something like coal, it’s too heavy for its volume. But they’re great at assorted consumer goods. What I see being built today is city-to-city warehouses where proximity to highways is the main concern and trucking is the means of transport. The distances are on the order of a day trip out and back. But these facilities are largely built without consideration to proximity to rail.

What I believe Buffett would love to see in rail is the ability for it to suck up capital at good rates. But we’ve lost the ability to build new connecting railroads between cities even though we do have the ability to build new roads. We can use imminent domain to get new highways where new rails would be impossible.

Berkshire Hathaway FAQ

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