Class I railroads’ volume trends in the second quarter varied considerably, with Norfolk Southern traffic up 5.1% and Canadian Pacific Kansas City down 4.2%, according to the railroads’ Association of American Railroads carload reports.
Norfolk Southern’s volume was boosted by 8.2% year-over-year growth in intermodal traffic. Its carload volume, less coal, was up 1.7%. Coal declined 0.94%.
At the other end of the spectrum, CPKC’s volume fell due to double-digit declines in intermodal and coal traffic. Intermodal was down 11%, partly due to the shift of BNSF Railway’s J.B. Hunt cross-border traffic to Ferromex via the Eagle Pass, Texas, gateway. CPKC’s coal traffic also sank 10.1%.
BNSF’s traffic was up 4% due to the industry’s strongest intermodal growth. BNSF’s intermodal volume surged 15% in the quarter. BNSF, however, saw the industry’s deepest drop in coal volume, at 29%.
Canadian National volume grew 3.9% in the quarter, with intermodal up 9.2%. Its coal volume was off by 11.4%.
CSX saw its traffic rise by 1.7% thanks largely to a 4.3% increase in intermodal volume. The railroad’s carloads, less coal, were down 0.4%, while coal declined 5.1%.
Union Pacific’s volume was flat. Intermodal was up 5%, but that wasn’t enough to offset a 24% decline in coal traffic.
Is that ‘real’ growth, or more accounting gimmicks?
Hey Ancora, stuff that in your pipe and smoke it!
Is this increase results of NS’s efforts to get more small shipper customers. If so, that will certainly put a hole in the other RR”s PSR type of marketing!
The “wall Street” conumdrum raises something with me. I retired from NS some years ago, and wishing to depend on more than RRB tier 1&2 and the VA, I invested my earning with reputable firms with the idea of making my money grow.
Now then, at the tender age of 65, having retired early due to cancer, I have steady growth funds. Own Very few individual stocks. Since working for a company and depending on a pension or social security alone went the way of the passenger train, if you want to live well, and I do, you want to invest in something that makes money.
Which led to the wolfs on wall st. I despise Ancora, I want my RR to do well. Shiny rails mean boxcars turning wheels to help the broke RRB. But the ‘investors’ who also represent retirement funds want their customers happy.
A conumdrum.