bigkid posted:Coal isn't a 20th century fuel, that is more natural gas and oil, it is a 19th century fuel that for a lot of reasons stayed around, more than a few of them political, and it basically is an inefficient technology whose mining and delivery system, not to mention how it operates as a fuel, whose time has passed. Converting coal to gas or to gasoline is possible (the gas lamps of the 19th century were lit by coal gas), but that is costly, and also is converting an ancient fuel to one only slightly less ancient. The reality is that coal is being pushed out of the marketplace both by market forces and people not wanting to live with the consequences of burning coal, things like acid rain for example, or the damage done to beautiful areas by coal mining, the slag piles, water pollution and so forth, not to mention what coal mining does to the people who do it.
There is no doubt significant coal hauling going on, CSX for example has significant revenue from coal, I suspect both BNSF and the Union Pacific have due to shipping coal to the west coast to be shipped to China, potential exposure. Railroads are subject to the market, like anyone else, and there is plenty to ship without coal. I don't think it will destroy the railroads, I don't think it will result in them cutting back on maintainence, rather I think it will result in them modifying their business model to reflect reality, which might mean they drop the number of trains they run, maybe drop routes entirely, but it isn't like coal was to let's say the C and O back in the day, it isn't.
I don't know how you figure that coal isn't a 20th century fuel? 
The use of coal was huge in the 1920's, 30's, and 40's. Still widely used in the 1950's as well. Use probably didn't really go into decline (at least in the east) until the 1960's. There was even a brief comeback in the 1970's as the price of oil skyrocketed.
Jim
