Short Line Volume Grows

Aided by grain loadings and increases in a number of other cargoes, small North American railroads picked up more shipments in the week ending Nov. 14 than in the previous week.

The 337 short lines and regional railroads that report to RMI for its RailConnect index report had their strongest week in the month since one sizable carrier, Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern, stopped reporting separately as a short line. DM&E was acquired last year by Canadian Pacific Railway.

The remaining carriers in the index comprise more than 60 percent of the estimated 550 small railroads across the U.S. and Canada. They originated 89,934 cargo loads in the latest week, up from 87,592 a week earlier.

The largest category, chemical tank car shipments, was about even with the week before at 14,921 new loads. However, grain was close behind at 14,744 hopper carloads in the Nov. 14 week, up from 13,284 a week earlier.

Short lines picked up 10,349 carloads of construction base materials including stone and sand, a gain from 10,053 in the Nov. 7 week. Their new cargoes of paper products, metal products and motor vehicles or other equipment also rose.

The increases were not across the board, though. RMI said short lines picked up fewer intermodal boxes and scrap material cargoes in the latest week.

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