Railroad shipping: AAR says weekly volumes are up 3.2 percent

Staff -- Logistics Management, 1/17/2008

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WASHINGTON—Freight traffic volumes on United States railroads for the week ending January 12 were up compared to the same timeframe last year, according to data recently released today by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Weekly carload freight, which does not include intermodal data, came in at 329,997 cars, which was up 3.2 percent compared to the same week last year, said the AAR. Carload freight loadings were up 5.7 percent in the West and down 0.1 percent in the East.

Intermodal traffic was down significantly from last year with a total of 238,277 trailers and containers loaded during the week for a 0.3 percent annual increase. The AAR said that container volume was up 0.1 percent, and trailer loadings were up 0.8 percent.

Railroad volumes for the week was also up, with the AAR’s estimated total weekly volume of 34.0 billion ton-miles ahead of last year’s pace by 4.0 percent.

Of the 19 carload commodity groups tracked by the AAR, 11 were up from last year, with metallic ores up 56.0 percent, farm products up 35.1 percent and petroleum products up 16.5 percent. Loadings for lumber and wood products were down 25.7 percent.