Railroad Traffic Grows from Previous Week

A boost in several large cargoes, including a new 2009 peak for hauls of motor vehicles and equipment, lifted traffic at major U.S. railroads in the week ending Nov. 14.

The U.S. operations of all Class I carriers plus a few regional railroads originated 281,218 carloads of bulk materials and equipment, said the Association of American Railroads. That is up from 274,846 carloads a week earlier and is the strongest performance since Sept. 19.

The separate category of intermodal loads, comprising rail hauls of containers plus truck trailers on chassis, rose to 208,056 units in the latest week from 206,890 for the Nov. 7 report and is the strongest level since Oct. 10.

All this came in a week that included the Veterans Day holiday, but that is not considered a major holiday to depress freight operations.

The intermodal pickup could reflect some retailer orders of goods ahead of the big end-of-year holiday sales. While the peak shipping season for imported ocean container loads probably ended in October, domestic intermodal loads in large-sized containers have remained strong.

On the carload side, railroads picked up the most coal last week in a month, and that is their single largest category with 129,784 hopper loads. They also loaded more chemical shipments – the second-largest cargo -- than anytime since Sept. 9, filling 28,252 tankcars.

But after weeks of declines or flat traffic patterns for railcars loaded with automobiles and other large pieces of equipment, AAR figures showed that category posted a new high for the year of 14,619 shipments.

Many observers have wondered if the late-summer rebound in auto loadings could be sustained after the initial push from the federal “cash for clunkers” trade-in voucher program wore off. The auto/equipment carloads category had not topped 14,000 loads since Sept. 19, and in mid-October it even sank below 13,000.

Another key cargo was a category for construction materials of crushed stone, sand and clay. Rail sources complained that federal stimulus money did not generate orders for such cargoes as fast as expected. Major U.S. lines originated 15,222 carloads of it in the Nov. 14 week, the most since Oct. 3.

Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.