WASHINGTON — As has been the case every week in 2023, weekly U.S. rail traffic was below 2022 levels for the week ending May 6, 2022, in this case by 6.6%.
Total traffic was 471,859 carloads and intermodal units, with 231,718 carloads, down 0.04%, and 240,141 intermodal units, down 12.1% compared to the corresponding week a year ago.
Through 18 weeks this year, carload traffic is up 0.6% while intermodal traffic is down 10.9%, for an overall decrease of 5.6%.
North American figures for the week, from 12 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads, include 330,351 carloads, down 0.1% from the same week in 2022, and 320,875 intermodal units, down 12.6%. The overall figure of 651,226 carloads and intermodal units represents a 6.7% decrease. Year-to-date totals through 18 weeks have North American volume down 4% from 2022.
Ironic that while rail traffic is down and a majority of materials and goods are shipped over the highways and some by air that the railroads depend on both shipping new automobiles and trucks from the plants to the dealers and also new airplanes and parts are also shipped by rail from the plants to be assembled and put together. Boeing is one of the railroads biggest customers when it comes to shipping the new planes and same goes for the auto manufacturers. Also there is some fuzzy math here. If rail is down and no doublt about that and if the lion’s share of goods andmaterials are going by highway and the trucks then how come there was so much concern last year about a potential rail strike shutting down the country and crippling the economy with massive delays and shortages? It would appear that all shipments should go by truck and new highways constructed to handle all the truck traffic and shipments and abandon the railroad completely Rail traffic is down because the economy hasn’t completlyrecovered from the pandemic as well as other issues both in this country and worldwide and an ever looming spector of recession and eventually a depression. Also there is a severe shortage of truck drivers and the majority of them either quit or retired or found other work and young people today don’t want any of those jobs especially in the transportation sector whether its truck drivers, railroaders, airline personel or even ride share services like Uber, Lyft or the urban taxi. Times are tough now and both business and the economy are just struggling along and will be this way for a long time to come regardless of any rosy or promising outlook that you might hear or read about in the media
Joseph C. Markfelder
Most of it is the drop in container traffic through L.A.-Long Beach as Chinese imports have dropped. People are spending more on services now and less on stuff.
Intermodal traffic is the most easily diverted to highway.
Truck rates have collapsed recently. Some truckers are barely making a profit. Freight traffic for everybody is down.