RAILROADS: The Green Giant

"Railroads," says Louis W. Menk, "are a growth industry." As chairman of Burlington Northern Inc., the nation's biggest railroad, he might be guilty of some slight bias, but his opinion is widely shared in financial circles. The oil shortage has made coal critically important as an alternative energy source, and most coal moves by rail. Shippers of other goods are beginning to realize that freight trains consume only about one-fourth as much energy per ton-mile as trucks do. And the Nixon Administration's newly proposed Transportation Improvement Act would protect railroads from discriminatory local taxation and make it easier for...

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