Profile
Name:
Intermodalglobal
Channel Views:
21,512
Total Upload Views:
837,252
Style:
Broadcaster
Joined:
Oct 29, 2006
Latest Activity:
4 days ago
Subscribers:
258
Background Picture:Vegasrail by David Kerr
News:
MOVE TO THE TOP BUTTON PLAYLIST AND ENJOY
News:
MOVE TO THE TOP BUTTON PLAYLIST AND ENJOY
About Me:
always good luck, good ride on track whatever the weather will be.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Full Story please read by Dan Reed, USA TODAY
In Matt Rose's 10 years at the helm of BNSF Railway, he'd heard plenty of investors talk about quarterly performance. A few would even talk about the railroad's annual performance.
Then on Feb. 12, he answered a call from Warren Buffett, the legendary investor who looks for long-term return and whose Berkshire Hathaway holding company had just closed on its $26 billion purchase of the 77% of BNSF shares it didn't already own."Warren called me and said, 'I'm looking forward to our first century together,' " Rose says. "I'd never heard an investor use the word 'century' before."When the deal — the largest purchase in Berkshire's history.
And the 79-year-old Buffett is talking about an investment that pays off throughout the 21st century?
Buffett chuckles at the suggestion that buying the nation's second-biggest railroad is a sign of senility. He argues that railroads represent the future. They're best-positioned to haul the raw material and finished goods for a nation and economy that he insists are bound to grow. Unlike trucks, trains don't have to compete on congested highways. Nor do railroads depend on strapped governments to maintain infrastructure."They don't need the government to build them new highways and airports," he says in an interview with USA TODAY. "They've already invested heavily in their infrastructure and technology, and they plan to invest more to keep up with the growing demand."They're the only mode of freight transportation that can handle growth. What's not to like about that?"
Tracking history
Buffett grew up in the 1930s and 1940s when folks in Omaha, the hometown he shares with Union Pacific, thought eating Sunday lunch at the Union Pacific station downtown was a sign of social sophistication.And he confesses to a life-long love of railroads.He has an elaborate model railroad layout on the third floor of his home for his children and grandchildren, though "it gets little action," he says, because they don't share his fascination and he has little time for it.
But buying BNSF (for Burlington Northern Santa Fe) is no nostalgia play. Buffett foresees a dynamic and profitable future not just for BNSF but for the nation's rail industry; so much so that he chastises himself for coming to that view, he says, two years late."There are just four big railroads in the U.S.," Buffett says. "I know the people who run three of the four, and they're all good people. They will all have similar destinies. They will all do very well, especially Union Pacific and BNSF."
"As long as it isn't a lost century, I'm OK," Buffett says.
"We used to call these things 'panics,' " Buffett says of the recent recession. "In the 19th century, we had seven or eight of them. We had the Great Depression. We've had flu epidemics. We had the Civil War. But the person who bets on this country and its economy going backward is the guy who has to explain himself, not me."Since 1790, this (the USA and its economy) is the wonder of the world," Buffett says. "The ingredients of that have not disappeared from this world; 9/11 and all sorts of things have come and gone, but the United States' success story isn't over." That's why he was comfortable in November calling Berkshire's BNSF buyout an "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States.""Our country's prosperity depends on its having an efficient and well-maintained rail system," he said. At the same time, he said, "America must grow and prosper for railroads to do well."
BNSF's Rose says the industry, and BNSF in particular, is well-positioned to help the nation prosper. It's already made huge investments in new technology, infrastructure and markets, he says.After the industry was deregulated in 1980, Rose says, "The railroads spent the next two decades going on a productivity binge, wringing out excess costs, getting rid of inefficient lines, finding wage rates that we all could live within, both for employees and our companies. We think we are a very productive institution at this time."
U.S. railroads were 144% more efficient in 2008 than in 1980, according to the Association of American Railroads, the industry's trade group. In 2008, they carried, on average, a ton of freight 457 miles on one gallon of diesel fuel, up 5% from 436 miles just a year earlier. And the association claims that if just 10% of the freight that now moves by truck were moved to the rails, the USA would burn 1 billion fewer gallons of fuel a year.
And that's what they want to do: move more freight from the highways to the railways. The fuel savings would be an economic benefit to the rails and shippers, and a general benefit to society and the environment, Rose says.
"This has an enormous beneficial effect on society," Buffett says.
Hometown:
Fort Worth
Country:
United States
Interests:
http://www.youtube.com/luxustrain
Movies:
http://www.youtube.com/bonntv
Music:
http://www.myspace.com/globalintermodal
Books:
http://www.youtube.com/intermodalglobal
http://www.youtube.com/bahntv
Other Channels
|
|
Videos: 0
Channel Views: 2,999
Subscribers: 59
|
|
All Scales Planes,Tanks,Cars,Trucks Ships no matter Civil ore Military
That wars past ,... |
Videos: 12
Channel Views: 4,093
Subscribers: 59
|
|
broadcasting NON PROFIT
Background Picture Create by... |
Videos: 5
Channel Views: 45,165
Subscribers: 100
|
|
My email address is - a2thamay@yahoo.com...
|
Videos: 244
Channel Views: 606,634
Subscribers: 5,275
|
|
All about intermodal global traffic
spec. double stacker and roadrailer technolgy,mode... |
Videos: 0
Channel Views: 10,461
Subscribers: 60
|
|
BNSF
|
Videos: 0
Channel Views: 838
Subscribers: 15
|
|
----Videos Uploaded Frequently----...
|
Videos: 882
Channel Views: 80,656
Subscribers: 1,445
|
Recent Activity
|
globalintermodal favorited a video
|
|
|
|
globalintermodal liked a video
|
|
|
|
globalintermodal liked a video
Unfortunately there is some sad news to speak about, then I'll talk about plans for 2012.
|
|
|
|
globalintermodal liked a video
|
|
|
|
globalintermodal favorited a video
|
|
Channel Comments
Chacodave