WASHINGTON — Weekly U.S. rail traffic ended a five-week stretch in negative territory, edging up by 0.7% for the week ending Oct. 15, 2022, according to statistics from the Association of American Railroads.
Overall volume included 500,304 carloads and intermodal units. That included 237,263 carloads, up 3.2%, and 263,041 containers and trailers, down 1.6%. Coal (up 15.5%) and motor vehicles and parts (up 10.9%) were the strongest carload segments.
The weekly figures had last shown a gain during the week ending Sept. 3, when they were up 3.7% over the same week a year earlier [see “U.S. rail traffic up slightly …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 8, 2022]. Since then, they had shown weekly declines of 0.9, 2.9, 4.4, 3.9, and 2.4%.
Year-to-date traffic, through 41 weeks of 2022, shows an overall decrease of 2.6%, with carloads up 0.1% and intermodal units down 5%. The weekly average is 494,477 carloads and intermodal units.
North American volume for the week, from 12 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads, was 695,252 carloads and intermodal units, an increase of 1.9% from the corresponding week in 2021. The 344,407 carloads represented a 3.9% increase, while the 350,845 intermodal units were level with 2021 figues.
Year-to-date totals for North America show overall volume down 2.1%.
