Railroad shipping: Volumes down on the rails for week ending July 4, says AAR
Staff -- Logistics Management, 7/10/2009
WASHINGTON—Carload freight and intermodal traffic volumes were down on United States railroads for the week ending July 4, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
Weekly carload freight, which does not include intermodal data, came in at 241,240 cars, down 15.6 percent from the same timeframe last year, said the AAR. And carload freight loadings were down 11.1 percent in the West and 23.0 percent in the East.
Intermodal loadings, which are not included in carload data, totaled 169,290 trailers or containers, down 12.8 percent compared to the same timeframe a year ago. Trailer volume was down 34.9 percent, and container volume decreased 6.4 percent.
Weekly railroad volume was estimated at 25.7 billion ton-miles by the AAR which was down 14.3 percent from a year ago.
And for the first 26 weeks of 2009, the AAR said U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 6,806,892 carloads, which is down 19.2 percent from the first 26 weeks of 2008. Trailers or containers at 4,816,358 were down 16.8 percent, and total volume at an estimated 723.7 billion ton-miles was off by 18.3 percent year-over-year.
Of the 19 commodity groups tracked by the AAR, only the grain mill products category was up year-over-year at 4.3 percent. Lumber and wood products were down by 31.5 percent and motor vehicles and equipment were down by 50.9 percent.
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