They know it not only because of our past track record, but more importantly because they understand how our transportation business relates to their own ag-based businesses. We are in fact a single unit, where the success of one relies upon the success of the other. Our ag customers, producers, and the ag groups who represent them are smart business leaders who understand the railroad business. The vast majority of them recognize that this project provides concrete practical assurances, and not just a vague possibility. The greatest assurance people knowledgeable about agriculture and transportation has is a common sense understanding of railroads and ag markets.
Railroads are in business to move product.
We will have a far superior system on which to move that product in the future, and it can be moved much more efficiently to many more places than is possible today. With a new railroad, we will get much of that traffic off of the highways and back on to the rails, which will result in great advantages in highway safety, congestion and highway repair costs. A single grain train on our tracks equates to roughly 400 fewer large semi-trucks on the highways. More importantly, if the project is not built, the roughly 300,000 truckload equivalents of traffic we move today will have no alternative except the highways. New connections, more competition, new market access.