EnergyBiz - September/October 2007 - (Page 34) Although BNSF and other railroads have been investing in capacity, there is demand from our customers for even greater investment. There are several options for increasing investment in rail capacity. We believe the preferable option is to supplement the current model with a stimulus such as the investment tax credit proposed in legislation currently being considered in Congress. The right stimulus would not be enough to cause bad investments, but would ensure that good, market-based investments would be made sooner than they would be if we just retain the current model. Without such a stimulus, we should be prepared for capacity constraints as demand for rail capacity exceeds supply. It has been estimated that stimulus would increase expansion capital in the industry from around $2 billion a year to $4 billion, and that scale of increase would have a tremendous impact on expansion. It really is simple. The railroad model works like all other industries. The healthier the industry, the more money it will put into investment. King coAl matt rose is chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Burlington northern santa fe corp. 34 aw service ad LMP ENERGYBIZ CR.indd 1 E n E rgyB i z September/October 2007 4/2/07 3:32:04 PM http://www.usa.siemens.com/PTI http://www.usa.siemens.com/PTI
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.