In the U.S. alone, transportation represents more than 8.5 percent of GDP, which is more than $1.3tr in revenue. In the EU, which reports their base numbers slightly differently, it's more than 533bn Euro ($581bn). And an interesting statistic they also include is that about 13 percent of the consumer cost or "value consumption" is based on transportation costs. Getting great numbers from the rest of the world is tough, but consider that in China transportation costs represent, by various estimates, between 13 percent to 18 percent of their gross domestic product.

Our world relies on trade. According to the World Bank, more than 49 percent of the goods we use are sourced from global trade. Take the following: virtually all goods travel by truck at some point - on a global basis, goods may move from truck to truck up to a dozen times. Seventy-eight percent of imports arrive in the U.S. via ocean transport. Our commodities - fuel, grains and so on - still travel the nation’s railroads. Across the global infrastructure, investment in rail continues to climb as rail has undisputed real estate/roadways, lower emission and lower costs to transport. Rail is oft forgotten in the grand scheme of route planning.

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