PRODUCTIVITY
To move the same number of tons, around seven times more trains are necessary in Europe. For a thousand tons the U.S. Class I railroads require 0.28 trains; in Europe it is 1.94 (Figure 2). Even taking into account the higher costs of the larger U.S. trains, this is a very significant distinction that implies that European railways have much higher costs per ton and tkm, which is the case. As shown in Figure 3, the operational revenues per ton-mile are higher in Europe, almost two times more than in the U.S. (DB Shenker, being the largest European freight railway, will be used in the comparison, and data for CP Carga the main Portuguese freight railway are also presented). But the operational expenses are almost four times higher than the ones in the U.S. In fact, European railways are barely profitable or not profitable at all (European Commission 2009b).
JTRF Volume 52 No. 2, Summer 2013

A report recently published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the research and analysis division of The Economist Group, explained that whereas the rollout of vaccines against coronavirus has started in developed countries, mass vaccination will take time.
The unit predicts that the bulk of the adult population in advanced economies will have been vaccinated by mid-2022. Middle-income countries will take until late 2022 or early 2023.
“For poorer economies, mass immunization will take until 2024, if it happens at all,” the report said.