Railroads See A Steep Climb To Stronger Economy

SAMANTHA BOMKAMP

NEW YORK (AP) — Consumers still aren't buying. Manufacturing lines are still slow. And, oil prices are going up.

For all these reasons, the nation's railroads can't predict when the economic engines will hum again. All they're saying is, for now, it's not getting worse.

Fewer shipments of everything from cars to clothing are rolling across the country compared with a year ago, although the railroads say shipping volume seems to have stabilized from earlier points this year. For the moment, the country's biggest rails, including Union Pacific Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., say they will still be able to make gains by improving efficiency on their lines to offset some of the shipping volume shortfall. Lower costs for fuel and labor are also keeping results from being a lot worse.

But next year will be challenging. Union Pacific chairman and CEO Jim Young said Thursday that the economy will "limp along" until unemployment starts to improve. And Burlington Northern CEO Matt Rose said in a conference call with analysts that consumers are going to be the driver of any improvement in the economy, but no one is buying yet.