Freight Railroads in Today's Economy
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Freight railroads play an important role in the United States' economy. The American freight rail system is considered the best in the world. In terms of ton-miles, railroads annually move more than 25% of the United States’ freight and connect businesses with each other across the country and with markets overseas. They also directly contribute tens of billions of dollars each year to the economy through wages, purchases, retirement benefits, and taxes.
Read more about this topic: Rail Transportation In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words freight, railroads, today and/or economy:
“Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the larger the load, the greater will be the profit upon profit.”
—Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)
“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Somewhere between a third and a quarter of all people living in America today were born between 1946 and 1965 and if you think you’re tired of hearing about us, you should try being one of us.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)