United Stations

One of the biggest problems with promoting rail infrastructure is that it has a perception of being expensive compared to roads, and that it needs extensive subsidies to make it work. Warren Buffett’s recent investment in the US freight company BNSF has been billed as an ‘all-in’ bet on the US economy, but it is also a huge vote of confidence in the rail industry itself.

Freight might not be as glamarous as passenger rail, but it is still an essential part of the package, even if freight trains can get in the way of passengers who want to get places fast! It also looks like the US under the Obama administration is slowly coming over to the idea of passenger rail too, with the first big new project set to start in California.

Considering Buffett’s views on investing in the airline industry, this has to be seen as very good news indeed!

Tags: BNSF, California, Warren Buffett

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.