AAR reports carload and intermodal declines for week ending April 23

United States rail carload and intermodal volumes saw further annual declines for the week ending April 23, according to data issued this week by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Carloads saw a 17.1 percent annual decline to 230,599, which was below the week ending April 16 at 240,462 and ahead of the week ending April 9 at 229,704.  

Three of the ten commodities tracked by the AAR were up annually, with miscellaneous carloads up 23.3 percent at 9,515, and chemicals up 1.6 percent to 30,858 carloads. Coal dropped 40.1 percent to 58,837 carloads, and petroleum and petroleum products fell 24.9 percent to 11.348.

Intermodal containers and trailers were off 6.3 percent at 261,347, which was ahead of the week ending April 16 at 259,317 and the week ending April 9 at 249,355

On a year-to-date basis through the first 16 weeks of 2016, total U.S. rail carload and intermodal volumes are down 7.6 percent annually at 7,953,707.