For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 526,734 carloads and intermodal units, down 4.8% compared with the same week last year.
Total carloads for the week ending Sept. 14 were 252,310 carloads, down 6.1% compared with the same week in 2018, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 274,424 containers and trailers, down 3.5% compared to 2018.
One of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2018. It was motor vehicles and parts, up 299 carloads, to 17,339. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2018 included coal, down 4,950 carloads, to 80,753; grain, down 2,915 carloads, to 18,337; and metallic ores and metals, down 2,360 carloads, to 22,766.
For the first 37 weeks of 2019, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 9,363,002 carloads, down 3.5% from the same point last year; and 9,833,164 intermodal units, down 4% from last year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 37 weeks of 2019 was 19,196,166 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 3.7% compared to last year.
North American rail volume for the week ending Sept. 14, 2019, on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 353,047 carloads, down 5% compared with the same week last year, and 370,297 intermodal units, down 1.7% compared with last year. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 723,344 carloads and intermodal units, down 3.3%. North American rail volume for the first 37 weeks of 2019 was 26,195,787 carloads and intermodal units, down 2.6% compared with 2018.
Canadian railroads reported 80,505 carloads for the week, down 3 percent, and 74,960 intermodal units, up 0.9% compared with the same week in 2018. For the first 37 weeks of 2019, Canadian railroads reported cumulative rail traffic volume of 5,610,616 carloads, containers and trailers, up 1.6%.
Mexican railroads reported 20,232 carloads for the week, up 1.7% compared with the same week last year, and 20,913 intermodal units, up 16.7%. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 37 weeks of 2019 was 1,389,005 carloads and intermodal containers and trailers, down 3.3% from the same point last year.
— An Association of American Railroads news release. Sept. 18, 2019
There are alot of steel cars being stored. Tariffs are begining to bite harder and ripple further. It is only a matter of time before a recession strikes. Hopefully it will be a mild one.
Mr. McFarland: You are incorrect. The building sector is one example. New construction is booming. Yet, the railroads are not keeping pace with increased construction material demand. Retail sales are up 4.6 percent above last year. That, too, illustrates the railroads (i.e. container traffic) not keeping pace with consumer demand. The media/Left talking points about “the coming recession” is just another failed effort to tarnish the current leadership. Look again my liberal friend!
Jim Norton,
No, this is not indicative of a pathetic industry…this is indicative of the coming recession that even the economists say is going to hit us in 2020, it has nothing to do with the railroads lack of motivation to solicit business but everything to do with someone thinking we can live without international trade partners.
This is indicitive of a pathetic industry. Despite some impressive efforts of the past couple of decades the railroads have returned to their medicore and irrevelant mindset plaguing them for the last 60 years. Pathetic.