Wednesday, March 24, 2010

DOT Spills The Beans On Transportation Stimulus

My faithful readers (yeah, all three of you) know my interest in transportation stocks.  Some modes of transport are more energy efficient than others when measured in fuel expended per ton-mile.  The U.S. Dept. of Transportation weighs in on how it prefers to spend stimulus money:

The Department of Transportation’s second-highest official told senators that DOT’s preference for freight shipping is keep goods on waterways and rail as much as possible, getting them away from trucks except for the final delivery.
(snip)

Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., asked Porcari whether the concept of DOT’s discretionary “TIGER” grant program could work in the next multi-year surface transportation bill. That $1.5 billion pool of stimulus funds allowed DOT to send grants to multi-modal projects that cross state lines, instead of disbursing money under state-allocation formulas or for specific transport modes.

This preference isn't just a matter of achieving energy security by reducing America's dependence on foreign oil  This has implications for transportation companies as stimulus money spent on infrastructure acts as an indirect subsidy to rail and waterway carriers at the expense of long-haul truckers.

I'm watching these stocks:  Kirby Inland Marine (KEX) and Landstar System (LSTR).  KEX is one of the nation's leading inland barge operators.  LSTR has a huge netork of local intermodal connections that give it more flexibility than a typical trucking firm.  I bolded a line in the excerpt above because intermodal, multi-state operators will benefit mightily from transportation infrastructure spending.  Read my blog in the coming weeks and you'll hear more of what I have to say about these two stocks.