For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 403,283 carloads and intermodal units, down 23.3% compared with the same week last year.
Total carloads for the week ending April 18 were 189,598 carloads, down 27.5% compared with the same week in 2019, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 213,685 containers and trailers, down 19.1% compared to 2019.
None of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2019. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2019 included coal, down 35,555 carloads, to 48,423; motor vehicles and parts, down 14,459 carloads, to 1,943; and non-metallic minerals, down 5,188 carloads, to 30,377.
“Rail volumes suffered again last week as extremely difficult times for rail customers and the economy continued,” said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray. “Like everyone else, railroads are looking forward to a return to normalcy and an end to the significant challenges associated with the pandemic. Until that happens, railroads will work hard to keep their employees and the communities they serve safe, will continue to deliver the goods needed to sustain and heal the nation and, when appropriate, support its economic restoration.”
For the first 16 weeks of 2020, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,592,286 carloads, down 9.5% from the same point last year; and 3,823,931 intermodal units, down 10.4% from last year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 16 weeks of 2020 was 7,416,217 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 10% compared to last year.
North American rail volume for the week ending April 18, 2020, on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 277,795 carloads, down 23.5% compared with the same week last year, and 291,778 intermodal units, down 16.5% compared with last year. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 569,573 carloads and intermodal units, down 20%. North American rail volume for the first 16 weeks of 2020 was 10,236,377 carloads and intermodal units, down 8.4% compared with 2019.
Canadian railroads reported 72,049 carloads for the week, down 13.5%, and 65,088 intermodal units, down 7.9% compared with the same week in 2019. For the first 16 weeks of 2020, Canadian railroads reported cumulative rail traffic volume of 2,253,268 carloads, containers and trailers, down 4.7%.
Mexican railroads reported 16,148 carloads for the week, down 10.3% compared with the same week last year, and 13,005 intermodal units, down 10.2%. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 16 weeks of 2020 was 566,892 carloads and intermodal containers and trailers, down 2.2% from the same point last year.
— From an Association of American Railroads news release. April 22, 2020.
Herb:
Part of the reason for the restrictions on place today are because of what we learned from the flu epidemic 100 years ago, and from other outbreaks since. If we had been able to react to the 1919 epidemic as we have this one, we could have possibly cut those numbers dramatically. Coordination, education, and cooperation (not other people whining about “da guvvmint”) are necessary and have been helpful.
Nanny state is the wrong term here. It takes a centralized authority to manage an epidemic when it’s occurring on a global scale/continental scale in the US and Canada. A Balkanized approach does not work. The corona virus is oblivious to borders and politics.
So railroads are only profitable due to the automobiles they carry? 88% decline in auto traffic has to do with temporary domestic auto plant closures. What I do not understand is why the author is not looking at the overall decline across the board of all commodities of traffic which is the more critical figure. If what UP railroad CEO stated in a previous article is correct (forecast 25% drop across the board in traffic for second quarter). That is bad but it is not a FULL STOP in the economy as we all have been led to believe. Add on the earlier 7% drop in the first quarter and the railroads are still hauling 2/3 of the traffic they hauled before. Which in my book is still far from a crash. We’ll have to see what the May forecasts produce but my guess is May will start to show a recovery and the percentage drop will not be as severe as April.
The response to the disease is, in many cases, worse than the malady. The most efferctive, least disruptive , measures need to be evaluated and implemented. The CDC has had medical responses devised for decades, with periodic revisions. Treasury and the Fed seem to have been caught flat-footed and the measures they have taken afre as likely to produce anaphylactic shock as cure. The whole response mess lacks coordination, uniformity of means and objectives and measurable results. What is appropriate for NYC is destructive without being effective for rural mid-America. It’s llong past time for the powers that be to get their act together.
Corona virus is bad but pales in comparison to the Spanish flu of 1918. That one could and frequently did kill healthy young men in 3 or 4 days from first exposure. As a 19 year old, myh dad caught it and was sick for months, not days. An uncle attending Oberlin college caught it in May and woke up late September; another uncle was sick for weeks. These were not untypical reactions. In sum, about 250,000 Americans were killed by the epidemic and world-wide, the flu kkilled more people than all the casualties of the World War–whick we were actively fighting at the time. Can anyone imagine how the current Krew Intrepid would manage?
In early spring 1919, GE delivered the first sets of 3400hp Bi-polar electric locos, the most powerful engines in the world at the time. It wasn’t done with closed suppliers and absentee workers ar the Erie plant. Adequate sanitary measures wwere devised to keep people nhealthy and still get the job done. H ave we learned anything in the intervening century?
Herb, we have learned one thing over the last century, How to be the nanny state and have the government tell us what is good or bad for us.
But every TV show has some auto manufacturer has a commercial for buying you car on line and we will deliver it to your house.
I mean what else should it show???
Probably should include an asterisk besides these numbers due to pandemic panic.