And the numbers are amazing.

US railroads now carry 33.7 million barrels of oil a month across the country. This is a 50-fold increase in the amount of crude being shipped by rail (CBR) from the 630,000 barrels in January 2010.

The EIA says that "the flexibility and adaptability of CBR has facilitated new flows from the Midwest to the East Coast and West Coast, as well as from the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast and Canada." Previously, most crude produced in the United States was moved by pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma.  

The increase in crude by rail is great for the industry — it can get the massive amounts of crude now being produced where it needs to go using infrastructure that already exists.