Rail Traffic Gained Before Storm

Before a powerful series of winter storms began to strike early this month, major U.S. railroads enjoyed their strongest traffic in many weeks as January ended.

The five U.S.-owned Class I carriers plus a few regionals that report to the Association of American Railroads originated 278,438 carloads of bulk materials and machinery in the week ending Jan. 30. That was their strongest week for carloadings since 284,177 through Dec. 5.

Railroads also picked up 203,952 intermodal containers and trailers in the Jan. 30 week, their best level since 209,759 as of Dec. 19, a period that benefited from a late traffic rise ahead of Christmas.

Coming weeks could easily see traffic weaken on major U.S. lines from the Jan. 30 level, since a strong winter storm moved over the Midwest and hammered the Eastern Seaboard late in the first week of February. This week, a second major storm front is hitting the nation’s mid-section, from Oklahoma to Chicago, and then delivering a second blow to the East as it is still trying to dig out from weekend snowfall of two to three feet deep.

Helping drive the recent rail volume has been strong demand for rail-delivered chemicals, which are an early sign of factory demand. Major U.S. railroads originated 29,893 tankcars of chemicals in the latest week, up from 28,749 in the Jan. 23 week.

Compared with a year ago, when rail traffic was shrinking in the wake of the financial crisis, chemical loadings for Jan. 30 were up 12.1 percent from the same week in 2009. Overall carloadings were up 7 percent year over year, while intermodal was up 7.5 percent.

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