Letters

READER FEELS RAILROADED

I take exception to Traci Purdum's report in the March 2006 edition of INDUSTRYWEEK ("Trucking Costs Continue To Climb," Page 13), accusing railroads of reducing track and creating an additional burden on trucking infrastructure.

Railroads aren't adding to trucking's

infrastructure woes; we're helping solve them. Railroads aren't reducing capacity; we're increasing it. This year, we expect to spend $8 billion (more than any previous year on record) to double and triple track rail line, improve signaling systems, add hundreds of new locomotives and hire thousands of new employees to increase our freight hauling capacity. Railroads invest about 45% of their operating revenue in their rail systems, five times more than the average U.S. manufacturer. In fact, about the only places railroads are reducing track is where they have taken advantage of more efficient routes to improve fluidity (another action that increases capacity) or they have little or no business.