Recovery Rides In On The Rails

This piece was posted early this morning on Investopedia. 
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/Recovery-Rides-In-On-The-Rails-UNP-CP-CNI-NSC-CSX-BTU0518.aspx 

I strongly recommend Rail Times Indicators; it is an excellent source of information on what's going on with North American railroads.

If you really want to know what is going on in the economy, you cannot just look at the flashy headline economic data that comes out every month. You need to know what is happening at the "street level", and that is why I am a fan of following railroad traffic data.

According to data produced by the American Association of Railroads (in its monthly Rail Time Indicators report), U.S. carloads jumped almost 16% from the year-ago level and hit their highest number since November 2008. Likewise, Canada was quite strong - carloads jumped almost 27% annually and ended up at a level not seen since October 2008.

The rest of the article can be read at Investopedia: 
   http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/Recovery-Rides-In-On-The-Rails-UNP-CP-CNI-NSC-CSX-BTU0518.aspx