Railroad Renaissance -- Forbes

I wouldn't have linked this story except for two reasons: 1) a reader sent it to me; and, 2) it has a personal angle.

First, I try very hard to find a reason to link any story readers send me. I've learned a lot from readers.

But this story in Forbes seems a bit dated; we've been talking about a rail renaissance two years ago.

But, it was the personal angle that was compelling (I love that over-used word).

My wife's father was raised by his aunt in Beeville, Texas, which is mentioned in the linked story. His father was sent back to Mexico when he was caught as an illegal immigrant. I have spent a fair amount of time helping the current patriarch of the Garcia side of the family raise race horses south of San Antonio.

Forbes is reporting, it begins:

One of the significant out-growths of America’s nascent Shale oil and gas boom is the subsidiary booms it is creating in other industries.  Businesses that either service the oil and gas industries or rely on its end products as feedstock for products of their own are bringing thousands of jobs back from overseas and investing billions of dollars in new domestic infrastructure.

Nowhere has this direct cause and effect been any more apparent than in America’s rail industry, and nowhere is this impact more visible than in the Eagle Ford Shale region, where four major new rail terminals have opened in the last two years. Media coverage of this rail renaissance has focused on increased rail transport of crude oil from areas where the necessary pipeline infrastructure doesn’t yet exist.  And rail transport has been a godsend in plays like the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, for that reason, and because of rail’s versatility in being able to route crude oil shipments to any number of market and refining centers.

And then this. I never thought I would see "Beeville" mentioned in a Forbes article:

For a boy like me, who grew up in Beeville hearing the sound of that Southern Pacific train whistle as it passed through town in the middle of the night, only to see those tracks get torn up in the 1980s as the transition to truck transport was in its heyday, this revival of the nation’s rail industry is music to my ears.  It’s just one more way the current shale oil and gas boom benefits all Americans.

Wow, "for a boy like me, who grew up in Beeville hearing the sound of that Southern Pacific train..."

The patriarch of my wife's Beeville family still talks about hopping that train to get from Beeville to the next little town, the name of which I have long (sadly) forgotten.