For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 510,820 carloads and intermodal units, down 7% compared with the same week last year.
Total carloads for the week ending Oct. 12 were 243,807 carloads, down 7.5% compared with the same week in 2018, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 267,013 containers and trailers, down 6.6% compared to 2018.
Two of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2018. They were petroleum and petroleum products, up 912 carloads, to 12,717; and chemicals, up 439 carloads, to 30,855. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2018 included coal, down 12,263 carloads, to 73,902; metallic ores and metals, down 3,402 carloads, to 19,720; and motor vehicles and parts, down 2,305 carloads, to 15,295.
For the first 41 weeks of 2019, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 10,355,081 carloads, down 4% from the same point last year; and 10,924,972 intermodal units, down 4.2% from last year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 41 weeks of 2019 was 21,280,053 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 4.1% compared to last year.
North American rail volume for the week ending Oct. 12, 2019, on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads totaled 340,933 carloads, down 7.6% compared with the same week last year, and 359,545 intermodal units, down 4.1% compared with last year. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 700,478 carloads and intermodal units, down 5.8%. North American rail volume for the first 41 weeks of 2019 was 29,051,744 carloads and intermodal units, down 2.9% compared with 2018.
Canadian railroads reported 78,196 carloads for the week, down 8.3%, and 73,060 intermodal units, up 4.8% compared with the same week in 2018. For the first 41 weeks of 2019, Canadian railroads reported cumulative rail traffic volume of 6,224,302 carloads, containers and trailers, up 1.1%.
Mexican railroads reported 18,930 carloads for the week, down 5.7% compared with the same week last year, and 19,472 intermodal units, up 2.1%. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 41 weeks of 2019 was 1,547,389 carloads and intermodal containers and trailers, down 2.8% from the same point last year.
— An Association of American Railroads news release. Oct. 16, 2019
Jim Norton,
Your last line is the most telling one in your statement…”by companies which remain in business”. Just how many of those former shippers of goods remain in business to even ship goods, that is the more telling tale.
Reading Steve Smedley’s article in the recent Trains is an eye opener. He states CSX and NS have lost a combined total of 1.2 million carloads since the year 2000. Its not the propaganda of a recession or trade disputes with China…….Its an industry that gives business to truckers in a cycle.
When I moved to Huntsville, Alabama in 1986 Norfolk Southern ran two daily locals (80 and 81) out of Sheffield and Scottsboro serving about 125 miles. Today, 80 only exists rarely serving the eastern half of the route. Gone are shipments of propane, brick, sheet rock, scrap metal, beer, farm implements, military/NASA, canned goods and metals all by companies which remain in business.