You can tell a person’s age and country of residence by asking when he or she last took an overnight train journey. Oil price inflation might soon make dinosaurs of short-haul aircraft, but an entire generation has grown up in the first world without firsthand experience of trains.
We take cargo by rail for granted as well. Fertilizers, coal, and grain are illustrative examples of goods that affect most lives. They cannot be moved over land quickly and economically by road alone. Railroads do not have the profile of the Healthcare Sector, but the industry is vital nevertheless.
Railroads make good stock investment sense, apart from their contributions to national life as a whole. This part of the Transportation Sector has appreciated by 10% over the 12 months ending May 2008. The S&P 500 has declined by a like amount during this period.
The industry includes small-capital stocks from North America. The best Price to Equity Ratio available is less than 13 as May 2008 draws to a close. Shippers and leasers of rolling stock are profitable clients for designers and manufacturers of rail cars. Maintenance and spares provide profitable and stable lines of revenue. The varied nature of goods transported over railroads provides plenty of scope for specializing in containers with specified material handling and storage capabilities.
Mobile repair services, by which corporations quickly put rolling stock of clients back in to use, are typical of high-value addition by members of this industry. Investors rely on this phenomenon to provide reliable returns on their stocks from this part of the Transportation Sector.
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