Rail Traffic Nears Recent Highs

Large U.S. railroads saw carloadings ebb slightly but stay above the 270,000 level for a third straight week, while overall intermodal traffic picked up as the number of train-carried container loads reached their highest peak since Jan. 10.

The Association of American Railroads said the Class I carriers and a few regionals that report their U.S. operations hauled 274,633 bulk carloads in the week ending Aug. 8, just 95 fewer than a week earlier. The decline from the same week last year was just 16 percent, improved from an 18.3 percent year-over-year drop for Aug. 1.

Intermodal worsened year over year, to a 16.6 percent drop on Aug. 8 from 16.1 percent a week earlier, as trailer loadings on rail flatcars continued to weaken. But container numbers grew more than trailers declined, and a combined 195,014 intermodal units was the best since the first full week of this year.

All of that is in line with an industrial economy that is slowly starting to recover from the lowest points of the recession, but is yet to see a sustained surge of demand.

Still, the carloads total was the second-highest since March 21. That included a rise in coal shipments – the single largest rail-hauled commodity – by more than 3,000 railcars to 132,651, which was the rail industry’s best showing for coal traffic since March 21.

The second-largest rail cargo, chemicals used in everything from factory inputs and machinery solvents to farm fertilizers, came down mildly from the previous week to 27,580 tank car loads but was still at its second-highest level since Feb. 28.

And as automobile and equipment manufacturers continue a steady recovery from when their rail shipments had been halved from last year, vehicle loadings reached 10,855 railcars in the latest week. That is the most since March 14 and down only 20 percent from the same point in August 2008.

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