Directions: Read the following passages and choose the best answers to the questions.

   Europeans have long pitied Americans for their rotten passenger trains. But when it comes to moving goods America has a well-kept freight network that is the most cost-effective in the world. It is, however, a capital-intensive business. Since the Staggers Act of 1980 deregulated the sector, rail companies have invested about 17% of their revenues in their networks. This is about half a trillion dollars of private money over the past three decades. Even the American Society of Civil Engineers, which howls incessantly (and predictably) about the awful state of the nation's infrastructure, shows grudging respect for goods railways in a recent report.
   The downturn has actually helped propel capital spending on everything from tracks to IT. Last year $23 billion was spent, a record in real terms. The plan has been to modernize the network while business is relatively quiet and money is cheap. Railway firms thereby hope to find themselves in a better position to handle rising traffic in future. In 2009 Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's investment firm bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe, a railroad company based in Texas Mr. Buffett described the purchase as an "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States".
   That bet is already paying off. In 2011 the seven largest freight railways had operating revenues of $67 billion (up from $47.8 billion in 2009). Net income was $11 billion, with returns on equity averaging 11.1% By 2035 the demand for rail freight is expected to double. A great deal of new business is coming from shifting consumer goods. Containers are lifted off ships and trucks, loaded onto trains and whizzed to their destination. This business pays well and is growing fast.
   Moving goods by rail is four times more fuel efficient than by road, and railways can increase their capacity in the future. So America's trains may soon nibble at the truck market share—particularly for journeys that take longer than a day by road. Truckers are battling high fuel and labor costs, shortages of drivers, congestion, tighter rules on how drivers must operate, and chronic underinvestment in roads.

What is the writer's prediction about American railways?