Good Friday Saps Rail Carloadings

Bulk freight volume at major U.S. railroads hit its lowest level of the year in the week ended April 11, as the Good Friday holiday shortened the business week while basic demand is still shrunk by the recession.

Carload traffic, which goes from commodity hauls such as coal or minerals to vehicles and intermediate loads like metals and chemicals, shriveled to 248,391 loads, said the Association of American Railroads, down from 262,624 in the April 4 week.

Carloads had not been so low since 231,426 units hauled the week of Jan. 3, a period that was near the low point of the freight collapse following last fall’s credit crisis, and a time when many factories were going through extended yearend shutdowns.

For several weeks starting about mid-March, rail industry activity has also been curbed by harsh weather including late winter storms in the Rocky Mountains and floods in the upper Midwest. Some of those problems have abated, but flooding came back this week in some other areas as those earlier snows melted away.

That has cut year-over-year carload volume by 20 percent or more for the last three weeks, worse than the decline for all 14 weeks so far this year.

Losing a big day of the work week also took down rail intermodal numbers at big U.S. lines, AAR said. Their trains hauled 178,283 boxes – with containers outpacing trailer hauls by nearly five to one – a drop of more than 7,000 units from a week earlier.

Still, intermodal loadings were lower at mid-March and in late February, so the box traffic held up better than bulk railcars despite the lost business day. From last year, intermodal was down 21.6 percent for the week, and down 15.9 percent for the first 14 weeks of 2009.

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