Buffet does not always back winners, but his record is remarkably good, so the fact that he is buying into BNSF is significant.

Given that energy prices are only going up, and that rail is the most energy efficient mode of ground transport (maybe Buffet should look at Barge companies too), it seems like a no brainer.

Over the road long haul trucking is more expensive, at least when one factors out the subsidized roads, and more polluting, so the long term prognosis for the industry is good.

FWIW, I’m not a rail buff^*, though I was a locomotive structures engineer at GE Transportations for a couple of years in the 1990s^†, but I think that it is an industry and a technology that has been under utilized in the US.

^*Rail buffs are the folks who staked out the prototype shop at GE to see the new AC6000 on tests in 1996.
^†Damn!!! It does seem that I’m the Kevin Bloody bacon of employment, doesn’t it.