WASHINGTON — U.S. rail traffic was up 2.6% in November over the same month in 2022, according to statistics from the Association of American Railroads. It was the third straight month of overall gains after increases of 1.5% in September and 1% in October.
U.S. traffic for the week ending Dec. 2 was up 4.9%, continuing a recent upward trend in the weekly statistics, as well.
The monthly figure included flat carload traffic (down a total of 102 carloads over November 2022) while intermodal traffic was up more than 60,000 units, or 5%, for the overall gain of 60,384 carloads and intermodal units.
AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray noted the intermodal gain was the third straight month of year-over-year gains “after 18 straight declines and the biggest year-over-year percentage gain for intermodal in 29 months. Overall, the last week of November had the highest carload plus intermodal volumes in two years. Much will depend on how the broader economy continues to evolve, but railroads are hopeful November will provide much-needed momentum for the rest of 2023 and into 2024.”
Overall traffic for the year to date is down by 3.1%. That includes a 0.2% increase in carloads through 48 weeks of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022, and a 6% decline in intermodal traffic.
Week ending Dec. 2
The weekly figure of 509,626 carloads and intermodal units enabled U.S. railroads to show their fourth straight week of increases compared to 2022 traffic. That includes 237,049 carloads, up 1.4% compared to the same week in 2022, and 272,577 containers and trailers, up 8.2%.
North American volume for the week included 351,272 carloads, up 2.3% compared to the corresponding week a year ago, and 356,459 intermodal units, up 6.9%. The total volume of 707,731 carloads and intermodal units represents a 4.6% increase. Year-to-date volume for North America through 48 weeks is down 2.8% compared to 2022.
— Updated Dec. 9 at 5:35 p.m. CDT to include omitted name of AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray.
Would have been nice to see the metrics for each railroad since three of the Class Ones (BNSF, NS and UP) are required to report weekly on their service progress. And why are the Canadian roads US operations not shown. CPkc seems to brag the most at how world class they are but we can’t see the facts. Maybe KCS’s facts could be shown since we know several problems around Shreveport and access to Houston /Galveston are problematic.
Also who was the unnamed AAR Senior Vice President who made these growth comments. Why was his name left out? That seems like an odd omission.
Omission of the name was an error on my part and has been corrected.