AAR reports annual declines for carload and intermodal volumes in February

Largely feeling the effects of the recently resolved West Coast ports labor disruption, railroad and intermodal volumes in February were down annually, according to data released by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) this week.

Carloads—at 1,089,211—were down 1.1 percent, or 11,726 carloads, annually. Intermodal—at 929,395 trailers and containers—was down 6.5 percent, or 64,384 units, compared to February.

A year ago this time, railroad volumes were crimped in large part due to the winter of 2013/2014, which impacted overall throughput in the form of lower train velocity and increased in cars online and dwell times, too. But this year so far, the overarching theme has been the impact of the West Coast port labor situation, which hindered supply chain operations in various ways, including longer transit times and late shipments and deliveries, among other things, including a rough stretch of inclement weather in several parts of the U.S. this week.

“The problems at West Coast ports clearly had an impact on rail traffic in February.  Bad weather in the East and Midwest didn’t help,” said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray in a statement. “It’s not possible to quantify the impact of these factors precisely.  However, economic fundamentals remain mostly positive, so railroads are expecting significant traffic improvements in March.”

Eleven of the 20 commodities tracked by the AAR were up annually in February. Grain was up 8,651 carloads—or 10.9 percent—and crushed stone, sand and gravel were up 6.5 percent—or 4,640 carloads. Commodities seeing declines were coal down 4.9 percent—or 21,075 carloads, and iron and steel scrap—down 23.1 percent or 3,943 carloads. When coal and grain loadings are removed from the total carload volume for February, the AAR said that carloads were up 0.1 percent—or 698 carloads—compared to last February.

Through the first eight weeks of 2014, carloads at 2,250,053 are up 2.3 percent––or 50,138 carloads, and intermodal at 1,934,462 containers and trailers were down 2.8 percent or 55,726 units.

For the week ending February 28, the AAR said that carloads—at 267,060—were down 7 percent annually, and intermodal—at 241,958 containers and trailers—were down 6.3 percent.