NATION Railroad freight industry gains strength in U.S.

U.S. railroads are expected to hire 80,000 workers by 2010.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Highway congestion, federal regulations and soaring fuel prices are giving new life to the railroad freight business, an industry thought at one time to be in its dying days.
"What we have are the rails of the country undergoing a renaissance," said Gary Sease, spokesman for CSX Transportation Inc. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based railroad unit of CSX Corp. employs 34,000 in 23 states and two Canadian provinces.
While the number of track miles has fallen from 319,000 in 1970 to 170,000, there has not been a corresponding decline in rail transit.
And while experts say trucks generally will be needed to get goods to their final destination, less-crowded lines, higher fuel and operating costs for trucks, and new rules requiring truck drivers to rest more between shifts are making railroads more viable.
"Truck drivers are in short supply anyhow, so that further limits the supply," said Mike Gorman, a transportation expert and professor at the University of Dayton. "With the new rule, every truck trip takes a little longer and the law means that drivers are, well, busy resting instead of busy driving."
Looking ahead
The demand means U.S. railroads expect to hire 80,000 workers by the end of the decade. The industry employed about 221,000 Americans in 2003.
Rail workers earned an average of $61,895 in 2003, according to the Association of American Railroads.
"We are graduating about 600 to 800 workers a year," said Lance Duncan, president of AMDG Inc., an Atlanta-based company that trains workers.
"And we're placing about 96 percent of our students into jobs."
But overtime and unusual hours can make the work demanding.
"We are continually losing people," Dennis Schuler, a United Transportation Union official based in suburban Cleveland. "But the pay is good. People could make six figures a year if they're willing to work. "But the overtime is mandatory and not many people like that."