巴菲特重金豪赌铁路巨头

　　Warren Buffett calls his $34 billion purchase of the remaining shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI) railroad 'a bet a on the U.S. economy.'
　　沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)称，他以340亿美元购买铁路巨头Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.剩余股份的做法属于“对美国经济下的赌注。”

　　So how does this railroad giant represent a proxy for the U.S economy?
　　那么这家铁路公司如何成为了美国经济的体现呢？

　　Here is the 411 on Burlington Northern and the U.S. railroad industry generally. This old-fashioned form of transportation has been modernized in recent years, with more-efficient trains, fewer employees and higher profit margins.
　　以下是Burlington Northern和美国铁路业的大体情况。这种古老的运输形式近年来一直在不断走向现代化，火车的效率提高了，员工减少了，利润率也上升了。

　　The industry also bills itself as a more ecofriendly transportation alternative to the congested and outdated highway system. Everything about this deal is big--from the price tag (Buffett's largest ever) to the scale of the company's business.
　　该行业也将自己宣传为拥堵过时的公路系统更环保的替代品。这项交易的一切都是大手笔，从价格（巴菲特有史以来最大的）到该公司业务的规模。

　　Rail accounts for 43% of the freight hauled across the U.S.
　　铁路占美国货运总量的43%。

　　Burlington Northern has 32,000 route miles, enough to crisscross the U.S. about 10 times. On average, the company has 220,000 freight cars chugging at one time.
　　Burlington Northern共有32,000英里铁路，是美国东西部距离的10倍以上。平均而言，该公司同时可运送22万节车厢的货物。

　　Company History: Burlington Northern is the product of 390 different railroad lines that have merged or been acquired over the past 150 years.
　　公司历史：Burlington Northern是过去150年间合并或并购的390条不同铁路线的产物。

　　Number of employees: 40,000.
　　员工总数：40,000人。

　　The company is the largest rail transporter of coal and grain. Each year, Burlington Northern hauls enough coal to supply one out of every 10 homes in the nation and hauls enough grain to supply 900 million people with a year's worth of bread.
　　该公司是煤炭和谷物的最大铁路运输商。Burlington Northern每年运输的煤炭足够美国10%的家庭使用，运输的谷物相当于9亿人一年的口粮。

　　Growth area: Shipping coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana to western ports, where it can be shipped by boat to China. Another area of growth is Burlington Northern's 'Intermodal' capacity, in which trains stack shipping containers from trucks. As trucking costs rise, analysts expect Burlington Northern's intermodal volume to keep rising. (The industry's intermodal volume rose 6.5% in 2006 from 2002).
　　增长领域：将煤炭从怀俄明州和蒙大拿州的波德河盆地运往西部港口，由此通过船只运到中国。另一个增长领域是Burlington Northern的联运能力，即将由卡车运送的集装箱通过火车运到港口装船。随着卡车运输成本的上升，分析师预计Burlington Northern的联运量将会上升。（该行业的2006年的联运量比2002年增长了6.5%）。

　　Green Pitch: The railroad industry is making a pitch to capture even more of the freight volume from trucks. According to Burlington Northern's Web site, railways are four times more fuel efficient than trucks. The company says, 'American railroads move 40 percent of our nation's freight, but account for just 2.2 percent of all transportation-related greenhouse-gas emissions.' That could help the rail industry's cause as Congress debates how to update the nation's infrastructure.
　　展望：铁路业有望从卡车运输业抢走更多的业务。据Burlington Northern的网站称，铁路的燃料消耗量仅是卡车的五分之一。该公司说，美国的铁路运送了全国40%的货物，但仅占与运输有关的温室气体排放量的2.2%。在国会讨论如何改善全国的基础设施之际，这有助于增加铁路业的筹码。

　　Other fun facts: Burlington Northern moves enough canned beverages to supply every resident of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles with one beverage a day for one year. It also hauls enough sugar to make more than three million batches of cookies a year.
　　其它有趣的事实：Burlington Northern向纽约、芝加哥和洛杉矶的居民运输了大量的罐装饮料，足够他们每人1年内每天喝一罐饮料。它运输的白糖也足够每年烤300多万炉甜点。
　　
　　Michael Corkery