Blueprint America -- with NOW on PBS -- in a report with correspondent Miles O'Brien looks at the massive amount of freight moved throughout the country -- by trucks and by trains. But the aging infrastructure they run on needs more investment. Still, in these economic times money is hard to come by -- if the economy is to improve, though, the freight system that moves the country's goods needs to keep moving.

Blueprint America correspondent Rick Karr updates a NewsHour report on freight rail congestion in the Midwest as a third of a billion dollars in federal subsidies is on its way to the backlogged region.

Blueprint America correspondent Rick Karr on the impact of freight moving through communities.

Blueprint America correspondent Rick Karr on the viability of electric rail in America.

Blueprint America -- with The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer -- in a two part report looks at the bottlenecks of America's freight rail network, and the communities the trains intersect.

Blueprint America correspondent Rick Karr interviews Edward Hamberger, President and CEO of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), about the state of freight rail in America today, as well as its future. The AAR represents the interests of the major freight railroads in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and Amtrak.

America, for some time now, has forgone its great infrastructure projects. It was the railway that first spread the country out –- developing land, building cities at each stop. The railway soon gave way to the highway –- developing even more land, building even more cities at each exit. But, the highway has yet to give way. BLUEPRINT AMERICA looks at the country’s next infrastructure system and, at the same time, the state of the current system: From transportation –- car, bus, light rail, train and plane –- to the water supply to the energy grid to city development and planning. In recent years, America’s infrastructure neglect has been seen across the country –- levees failed in New Orleans and a bridge fell in Minneapolis. But, neglect is no longer the only reason to rebuild. As the country is in an economic recession, there is a call now to rebuild the American economy by rebuilding the American infrastructure. It is a new New Deal to the country. BLUEPRINT AMERICA reports on how rebuilding America’s infrastructure can both impact the economy and change the current landscape of the country.

America’s ports are its economic lifeline to the rest of the world, and are in danger of becoming a hindrance to our nation’s success. In the second segment of a five part series on infrastructure in the U.S., NewsHour Senior Correspondent Ray Suarez reports with Blueprint America from one of the nation's busiest ports: New Orleans.

The NewsHour’s Ray Suarez talks with Chris Edwards, the director of fiscal policy at the CATO Institute, and Michael Gallis, an urban development consultant, on the future of America’s infrastructure.