Truckers not so much.
About 70% of all US freight moves on trucks, and the trucking index set at 100 in the year 2000 hit an all-time high of 144 in February.
In March the index fell back 4.5% to 137.5.
For perspective: the US has 140,000 miles of railroad, and the industry employs around 220,000.
By contrast the US has around 4 million miles of highways and the trucking industry employs nearly 9 million or whom about 3 million are drivers.
You can be certain that in the offices of shippers everywhere there are spreadsheets calculating costs of shipping by rail versus other modes, and as prices fluctuate, shippers take advantage of opportunities to reduce their own costs.
At some point in each freight category they find a break-even mileage, where fewer miles and you're better off shipping by truck, more miles and full loads go by train.
Bottom line: despite being under 4% of all transportation miles, railroads move nearly 40% of freight ton-miles (but just 16% by tons), and that number is super-sensitive to economic fluctuations.
Major US rail lines today:
I spent a lot of years in Omaha, home of the Union Pacific. Now THERE is a corporation with a colorful legacy!
Interesting - looks like CSX is doing a lot better than NS in the east, with UP stronger to the northwest, and BNSF stronger to the southwest. CN isn’t looking too good to the Gulf.