advertisement

---

As long as consumers continue to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles in the wake of escalating gasoline prices, Union Pacific Railroad stands to move more hybrid vehicles and ethanol.

Last year, the Class I transported about 6 million light vehicles, including passenger cars, pickup trucks, sport utility and cross-over vehicles, and commercial light trucks to distribution centers across the western U.S. The railroad also moved 101,000 hybrid vehicles and experienced a spike in ethanol traffic. And UP expects continued growth in those sectors in 2008.

To accommodate more hybrid vehicle and ethanol traffic, UP has invested more than $1 billion in its infrastructure the past year, including parts of its network serving ethanol-producing states Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. The Class I is bringing on more capacity to move grain to ethanol plants, transport ethanol to fuel terminals and carry dried distillers grains to feed markets.