Railroad traffic off again, says AAR

Staff -- Logistics Management, 5/24/2007

WASHINGTON—Carload freight and intermodal traffic on United States railroads were both down for the week ending May 19 compared to the same timeframe last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported today.

The AAR said that intermodal volume totaled 236,313 trailers or containers for the week ending May 19, which was down 3.1 percent from the corresponding week in 2006. Intermodal container volume was up 0.1 percent, and intermodal trailer volume was down 13.8 percent.

And carload freight, which does not include intermodal data, came in at 331,751 cars for the week, down 5.0 percent from the same week last year. Carload loadings were down 5.9 percent in the west and 4.0 percent in the east. The AAR said total volume was estimated at 33.7 billion ton-miles, which is down 4.3 percent from 2006.

Of the 19 carload commodity groups tracked by the AAR, 14 were down from last year, with nonmetallic minerals down 18.8 percent and lumber and wood products down 15.7 percent. Petroleum products were up 4.6 percent, and coke loadings were up 15.8 percent.

Cumulative volume for the first 19 weeks of 2007 totaled 6,432,205 carloads, which was down 4.5 percent from the same week in 2006, said the AAR. Trailers or containers—at 4,549,621—was off 1.2 percent and total volume of an estimated 654.4 billion ton-miles was down 3.2 percent year-over-year.