cartky.org

So how do you get goods to market with zero oil? Right now, you don't. In the future though, it could be done even in the US, if we use this plan for electrifying our national railroad system.

The system is elegant in its construction plan. In the great plains there isn't a lot of electricity to support electrified rail, but there are huge rights of way already ceded to the railroad companies, and they can ship out giant cranes along the rail, and use it to erect massive windmills to power the freight. With the savings in truck traffic on our highway, and thus road wear, we may find that this project pays for itself.

The Oil Drum: Multiple Birds – One Silver BB: A synergistic set of solutions to multiple issues focused on Electrified Railroads

"Global Trade, Fuel Costs Add Up To Expansion for Once-Dying Industry"

The Washington Post scores again with this summary of the boom in the RR industry:

The freight railway industry is enjoying its biggest building boom in nearly a century, a turnaround as abrupt as it is ambitious. It is largely fueled by growing global trade and rising fuel costs for 18-wheelers. In 2002, the major railroads laid off 4,700 workers; in 2006, they hired more than 5,000.