It was a wreck of a cargo ship, running freight over Europa and the Orient.
The growth of air freight over the past 20 years has provided an extra boost for Boeing and Airbus, which both registered record-breaking orders of over 1, 000 aircraft a piece last year.
Even if American freight carriers were to copy El Al, Israel's airline, and hold goods for a day for security checks, it would not greatly erode the advantages of air freight over other means of transport.
And thus the spectacle of slow cross-country trains that should have been allowed to die when Amtrak took over from the freight railroads in 1971 but continue to roll at the cost of vast subsidies with little or no public benefit.
Meanwhile, over the past month freight turnover and rail transport have slumped by 5% and 5.5% respectively.
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Estimates suggest that the carriage of freight by rail over a couple of decades in the late 19th century added perhaps 10% overall to American output.
Most long-term predictions suggest that, despite weak growth over the past couple of years, the total of freight-tonne kilometres flown will expand by around 6% a year over the next couple of decades (see chart).
The Rail Freight Group says that to transfer 25% of all lorry loads over the next ten years would require about 1, 000 additional freight trains, together with a network of terminals around the country, plus substantial investment in rolling stock, locomotives and equipment.
Rail use is projected to increase by 50% over the next decade, and rail freight by 80%.
How much the customer can afford to fork over is governed by market forces the freight and construction rates that can be charged not personal preference.
Extremely useful still for freight but less so for the movement of people over long distances.
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Sales at privately owned general freight and specialized freight trucking companies are up more than 14 percent over the last 12 months, according to a financial statement analysis of privately held companies by Sageworks Inc.
After "eruptive activity" last year at the Cleveland volcano, University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist Steve McNutt noted that 90% of air freight from Asia to Europe and North America flies over Alaska airspace, and hundreds of flights fly through Anchorage's air space daily.
David Steward, 48, built a couple of companies that handled freight invoices for railroad and transportation outfits, looking for over- and undercharges.
It has managed a stealthy 14% rise in passenger fares over the past three years, against a mere 2% rise in freight charges.
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The great majority of tracks that Amtrak rolls over are not owned by Amtrak, but are used through financial arrangements with the freight railroads.
As its chairman, Sir Alastair Morton, has made clear, many billions of pounds need to be invested in the railways by the government, as well as private investors, over the next decade to meet projected demand for rail services by both passengers and freight.
Over the past four years Greek shipping companies have benefited from increased trade with China and India, and freight rates have more than doubled.
The primary factor in the decline in stock price for the two firms was the weak demand for coal freight services, a trend which will affect CSX in Q4 2012 and will likely to do so over the next few quarters.
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