Nov. 5--MONTGOMERY -- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett joked that he spent $26.3 billion buying a railroad because his daddy didn't buy him a toy train when he was a boy.

But Alabama's chief investor said Buffett's purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad announced Tuesday shows Buffett's belief in the role railroads will play in economic recovery.

Buffett's commitment is reason to be optimistic about the future of the National Alabama railcar plant, Retirement Systems of Alabama Chief Executive Officer David Bronner said.

"If one of the most successful and respected investors in the world believes that rail transportation is essential to recovery, Little Ol' David feels a lot better," Bronner said. "It means if the country's future depends on rail transport, we're going to be building railcars."

Bronner bought into trains himself when he invested $625 million in RSA loans to build and equip the western Colbert County plant. He committed the last $275 million at the height of the recession last winter in the belief that the investment would pay as the economy improves.

Buffett's confidence in railroads speaks to the country's push for "green" transportation and also the part coal and corn will play in the country's energy future, Bronner said. Coal and the corn used in alternative fuels travel almost exclusively by rail.

The market for railcars may not be great now or maybe even into next year, Bronner said, but in the bigger picture, investment in the railcar will pay off for northwest Alabama and people searching for jobs.

Even National Alabama's plant itself is a "green" industry purposely built in an area without such industry to help provide jobs and economic growth. More than 8,000 people filled out applications for the initial 1,800 jobs the plant expected to fill before the economic downturn.

Less than 200 people work at the mile-long plant at Barton Riverfront Industrial Park now, Bronner said. But the country's move away from transporting goods by more expensive truck transportation means railroads provide a logical solution, he added.

In a Tuesday interview with CNBC, Buffett stressed energy efficiency and lower costs of transporting by rail as reasons for his Berkshire Hathaway company's investment in Burlington Northern.

"I basically believe that this country will prosper and you'll have more people moving more goods 10 and 20 and 30 years from now and the rails should benefit," Buffett said. "It's a bet on the country basically."

And that, said Bronner, is reason enough to believe in the future of National Alabama and the impact it can have on Alabama's economy.

-----

To see more of The Decatur Daily, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.decaturdaily.com

Copyright (c) 2009, The Decatur Daily, Ala.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:BNI, NYSE:BRK,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.