Rail Freight Declines Sharply

For the fourth consecutive week, U.S. rail traffic fell more than 20 percent in the week ending April 18 as the recession dampened both commodity and intermodal movements, even after flooding in the Midwest cleared up.

The Association of American Railroads estimated total volume at 27.2 billion ton-miles, off 23.2 percent from week 15 of 2008.

U.S. railroads originated 255,269 cars during the week, down 24.3 percent from the comparison week in 2008, although up 2.8 percent from the previous week this year. All 19 carload commodity groups were down from last year, with declines ranging from 9.3 percent for grain mill products to 63.6 percent for metallic ores. Coal loadings were down 16.2 percent.

Intermodal volume of 178,283 trailers or containers was off 28.3 percent from last year, although up 2.7 percent from the previous week this year. Container volume fell 12.9 percent from last year, while trailer volume dropped 37.7 percent, said the AAR.

Contact Thomas L. Gallagher at tgallagher@joc.com .