This is a good article from the Wall Street Journal, by way of Railway Age.
I think it makes good points very well. The BNSF is featured and the BNSF is shown as what it is: a very efficienct, high performance, flexible transportation system. Everything from UPS shooters to Bakken oil moves efficiently on the BNSF.
One thing that comes through in the article is the adaptability of the railroad. Bakken developed very quickly and the railroad kept up with the development. They operate unit trains of oil across mountain ranges and set it all up quickly. It takes a good company to do things such as that.
I remember the 70s and the sorry state of the US rail network back then. Deregulation did a lot of good. The government doesn’t need to involve itself in everything under the sun. But there are politicians, such as Senator Franken, who don’t have the slightest grasp of transportation economics (or any economics for that matter) who want to meddle where they don’t belong and in things they don’t understand. Just like before, if they get involved they’ll make things worse.