The industry, so recently an aging also-ran in the age of superhighways, is now a fountain of superlative figures: Industrywide, revenues have surged 19% from $67.7 billion to $80.6 billion since 2009, creating 10,000 new jobs at railroad companies and countless thousands in related industries–and paying out $21 billion in wages last year alone, up nearly $1 billion. As the U.S. population swells, the Federal Railroad Administration projects that the tonnage of freight shipped by the U.S. rail system will increase 22% by 2035.
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