Rail freight traffic showing slight improvement

Written by AAR.org Friday, 12 June 2009 21:47

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Showing slight signs of a slowly improving economy, rail carloadings on major U.S. railroads last week were at their highest level in nine weeks, the Association of American Railroads reported today.

U.S. railroads originated 260,282 cars during the week ended June 6, down 19.8 percent from the same week in 2008, with loadings down 16.5 percent in the West and 24.4 percent in the East.

Intermodal volume of 188,801 trailers or containers was off 20.1 percent from the same period last year, with container volume falling 15.3 percent and trailer volume dropping 37.7 percent.

Eighteen of 19 carload commodity groups were down from last year, with declines ranging from 6.7 percent for grain mill products to 68.2 percent for metallic ores. The lone group showing an increase was the catch-all category labeled “all other carloads” which was up 24.4 percent.

Total volume was estimated at 27.7 billion ton-miles, down 18.8 percent from 2008. For the first 22 weeks of 2009, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 5,799,687 carloads, down 19.5 percent from the same period in 2008. In addition, 4,080,869 trailers or containers were down 16.9 percent, and total volume of an estimated 615.6 billion ton-miles, down 18.4 percent.

Canadian railroads reported volume of 55,914 cars for the week, down 27.9 percent from the same period last year, and 39,357 trailers or containers, down 19.7 percent. For the first 14 weeks of 2009, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 1,302,774 carloads, down 24 percent from last year; and 888,631 trailers or containers, down 15 percent.

Mexican railroads reported originated volume of 11,791 cars, down 19.9 percent from the same period last year, and 4,634 trailers or containers, down 21.9 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 14 weeks of 2009 was reported as 243,719 carloads, down 14.5 percent from the same period last year; and 104,883 trailers or containers, down 20.6 percent.

Combined North-American rail volume for the first 22 weeks of 2009 on 14 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 7,346,180 carloads, down 20.2 percent from the same period last year, and 5,074,383 trailers and containers, down 16.7 percent from last year.

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