AAR: Traffic remains down on U.S. railroads
(The Association of American Railroads issued the following on November 5, 2009.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Association of American Railroads today said that freight rail traffic remains down for the week ended Oct. 31, 2009. U.S. railroads reported originating 275,439 carloads for the week, down 13.7 percent compared with the same week in 2008 and down 18.2 percent from 2007. In order to offer a complete picture of the progress in rail traffic, AAR will be reporting 2009 weekly rail traffic with year over comparisons for both 2008 and 2007 going forward.
In the West, carloads were down 14.3 percent compared with the same week last year, and 18.3 percent compared with 2007. In the East, carloads were down 12.9 percent compared with 2008, and 18.0 percent compared with the same week in 2007.
Intermodal traffic totaled 203,860 trailers and containers, down 11.1 percent from a year ago and 15.5 percent from 2007. Compared with the same week in 2008, container volume fell 5.4 percent and trailer volume dropped 32.3 percent. Compared with the same week in 2007, container volume fell 8.9 percent and trailer volume dropped 38.6 percent.
While 15 of the 19 carload freight commodity groups were down compared with the same week last year, increases were seen in grain mill products (9.9 percent), chemicals (3.6 percent), and waste and scrap metal (.7 percent and nonmetallic minerals (.3 percent). Declines in commodity groups ranged from 2.2 percent for the all other carloads category to 55.6 percent for metallic ores.
Total volume on U.S. railroads for the week ending Oct. 31, 2009 was estimated at 31 billion ton-miles, down 12.7 percent compared with the same week last year and 13.2 percent from 2007.
For the first 43 weeks of 2009, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 11,482,619 carloads, down 17.9 percent from 2008 and 18.3 percent from 2007; 8,173,640 trailers or containers, down 16.2 percent from 2008 and 18.6 percent from 2007, and total volume of an estimated 1.23 trillion ton-miles, down 17 percent from 2008 and 17.1 percent from 2007.
Canadian railroads reported volume of 71,023 cars for the week, down 8.7 percent from last year, and 42,869 trailers or containers, down 12.2 percent from 2008. For the first 43 weeks of 2009, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 2,656,713 carloads, down 21.1 percent from last year, and 1,763,759 trailers or containers, down 15.8 percent.
Mexican railroads reported originated volume of 12,952 cars, down 17.2 percent from the same week last year, and 7,087 trailers or containers, down .5 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 43 weeks of 2009 was reported as 494,437 carloads, down 11.9 percent from last year; and 231,525 trailers or containers, down 17.2 percent.
Combined North American rail volume for the first 43 weeks of 2009 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 14,633,769 carloads, down 18.3 percent from last year, and 10,168,924 trailers and containers, down 16.2 percent from last year.
Friday, November 06, 2009
