Railroad shipping: AAR reports another down month on U.S. railroads

Staff -- Logistics Management, 10/6/2008

WASHINGTON—Rough economic conditions exacerbated by the financial tumult on Wall Street, coupled with damage caused rail infrastructure and rail customer facilities on the Gulf Coast due to Hurricane Ike, resulted in low volumes on U.S. railroads in September compared to the same timeframe last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

In September, U.S. railroads originated 1,278,188 carloads of freight, which was down 4.6 percent—or 62,029 carloads—from September 2007, said the AAR. Intermodal loadings at 918, 319 trailers and containers were down 4.7 percent—or 44,959 trailers and containers.

Loadings by commodity were similar to recent months, with coal loadings up 17,062 carloads—or 3.0 percent, and metallic ores up 16.8 percent—or 4,648 carloads. Motor vehicles and equipment continued its lengthy downward slide, down 19,756 loadings—or 24.7 percent.

The AAR said that for the first nine months of the year total US rail carloads were down 31,579 carloads—or 0.2 percent—to 12,677,188 carloads. Meanwhile, U.S. intermodal traffic was down 278,002, and total volume was estimated at 1.32 trillion ton-miles, representing a 0.9 percent uptick from the first nine months of 2007.