Another reason why I remain bullish for the long term.
This is from the print edition of The Oregonian, August 26, 2010.
Greenbrier Companies, one of Portland, Oregon's, mainstay industry employers will hire 260 new employees and shift 175 current employees all for the purpose .... drum roll ..... for building railcars.
Greenbrier has done a fair amount of bidding over the past two years but these are their first new orders in that time. The new work will consist of 1,000 new double-stack intermodal platforms as well as 700 new covered hopper cars. The company will also modify 1,100 double-stack platforms, lengthening them to 53 feet, allowing shippers to increase cargo volumes and better compete with truckers for freight traffic (it should be noted that there is no comparison between trucks and rails for long-haul transport, or for grain and automobile transport).
Earlier this summer I posted that the Port of Los Angeles set a record for railcars loadings ...the historical record for the month of June, not simply a record for past five years or past decade, but the historical record. Yes, there was a Port of Los Angeles during World War Two.
