How much has the recession hurt Union Pacific?
Does that same yin-and-yang effect pertain to fuel prices? The increase in fuel prices last year did force us to incur a huge cost. We have fuel-surcharge mechanisms, but they don’t recover 100 percent of those costs. [On the other hand,] rail is the most efficient mode of transportation. We can move one ton 790 miles on one gallon of diesel fuel. We are three to four times more fuel-efficient than a truck. We also have two-thirds less of a carbon footprint than other modes of transportation, including trucks. So we are kind of the green solution, which favors us moving forward. What do you forecast for 2009? In our third-quarter earnings release we said we see volumes for 2009 being flat to negative 2 percent. That was an early look, however; we have not finalized our 2009 plan. Did you take business from trucks when fuel prices were sky-high? On the margin you might have seen a little shift. A lot of the product that moves by truck needs to get there now. Rail hasn’t been that kind o
