I like articles from the real world of railroads and transportation like this, even with the tinfoil hat headline rewrites by Mouse, these are how you can learn things... It's an old fashioned concept I know, but it still amuses me....

I suspect that Mexico as of now is buying much more American goods and services than China on a per capita basis. So, moving it from China may or may not improve the US economy, if it creates new incomes in Mexico, that will consumer more US goods. China in total value is probably right up with the EU, so it affect logistics and rail movements quite substantially, just ask folks who sell things like soybeans...

Trade has (had, several years back IIRC?) nearly quadrupled with Mexico in the last 25 years, including of US exports. The capital goods they use will b be more likely to come from Canada or the US, than China for starters.

Changing freight volume, over time, can be and often are a function of a lot of independent variables, things like trade wars, investments planned long ago, increasing consumption (like American corn and soybeans-also a major China export). Rail traffic has recovered somewhat from the recent "cratering". But, the loss of coal traffic, the economy of late including trade wars, and bad "monopolistic" discriminatory pricing of service, along with those 250 car super trains, but long delays and no switching, has had car counts on a downward slow decent, for years. This trend would probably be even worse, if trade volumes with Mexico were not holding, or going up in some sectors.

Now that all of you little snowflakes and trolls have finished the whining melt down over the horrors of free trade afflicting some of you poor little things with too much "affluenza"...remember you could have been born a 12th century serf, and really have something to whine about, like no toilet paper, and no trains...