The only trains that are running at full capacity are the train sets in your basements. The real trains that move a substantial portion of our goods are in second gear. The Association of American Railroads estimates that 30% of their boxcars -- 206,000 -- have been placed in storage. Put end to end these cars would stretch from New York to Salt Lake City.

The cars are hiding in small towns throughout the country.

• New Castle, Indiana has a mile long stretch of about a hundred rail cars.
• A small New Jersey town found a two mile line of rail cars resting on an unused rail line in Cape May, New Jersey.
• In December Union Pacific Corp (NYSE: UNP) parked a three mile long string of cars in the small town of Thornton, Colorado.
  

Continue reading A staggering 30% of U.S. rail cars are idle

A staggering 30% of U.S. rail cars are idle originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.