Fuel may represent a far lower percentage of a train operator’s costs than it does of, say, an airline’s, but Amtrak still has a very active fuel price hedging strategy. “We usually hedge 50% of our yearly fuel consumption, with the aim of limitingprice exposure to a maximum of $10 million,” says Raj Srinath, senior directorof corporate finance at the US rail company.

The Washington, DC-based firm, which operates in 46 US states, runs 351 of itstrains with diesel fuel – the other 74, in the