There has been no paradigm shift of freight off highways and onto rails, even with the recent spike in diesel fuel prices, and contrary to anecdotal claims of shipping managers. It is also highly unlikely that we will ever see such a shift no matter what happens to the cost of fuel. The whole \"railroad vs truckers\" drama is a myth, because in a modern context railroads really don\'t compete with truckers anymore. Railroads have over the decades retrenched to the point of optimizing their long haul advantage, while truckers have optimized their mid-to-short haul advantage. Each mode has thus optimized it\'s contributions to the supply chain, so relative fuel price changes aren\'t going to disrupt this optimization. The only way we\'d ever see a paradigm shift in traffic from truck to rail is if railroads start offering more mid-to-short haul moves, and the railroad beancounters simply won\'t let that happen. Only federalization of rail lines into comparable \"steel highways\" would allow trucking firms to utilize rail to the trucker\'s advantage.

There has been no paradigm shift of freight off highways and onto rails, even with the recent spike in diesel fuel prices, and contrary to anecdotal claims of shipping managers. It is also highly unlikely that we will ever see such a shift no matter what happens to the cost of fuel. The whole "railroad vs truckers" drama is a myth, because in a modern context railroads really don't compete with truckers anymore. Railroads have over the decades retrenched to the point of optimizing their long haul advantage, while truckers have optimized their mid-to-short haul advantage. Each mode has thus optimized it's contributions to the supply chain, so relative fuel price changes aren't going to disrupt this optimization. The only way we'd ever see a paradigm shift in traffic from truck to rail is if railroads start offering more mid-to-short haul moves, and the railroad beancounters simply won't let that happen. Only federalization of rail lines into comparable "steel highways" would allow trucking firms to utilize rail to the trucker's advantage.

It\'s not hard at all to see why railroad revenue\'s are up while demand is down. With the spike in the price of fuel, rail is still, by far, cheaper than truck albeit slower. This growth in rail revenues should match a decline in truckload demand.

It's not hard at all to see why railroad revenue's are up while demand is down. With the spike in the price of fuel, rail is still, by far, cheaper than truck albeit slower. This growth in rail revenues should match a decline in truckload demand.