Steep declines were intact for both rail carload and intermodal volumes for the week ending March 26, according to data from the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
U.S. Carloads were down 18.2 percent compared to the same week last year at 232,348, which was below the week ending March 19 at 235,390 and the week ending March 12 at 243,275 .
Two of the ten commodities tracked by the AAR were up annually, with miscellaneous carloads up 18.5 percent at 9,629, and motor vehicles and parts up 0.1 percent to 18,676 carloads. Coal dropped 37.8 percent to 66,281 carloads, and petroleum and petroleum products fell 22.1 percent to 10,738.
Intermodal containers and trailers were off 14.5 percent at 237,923, which was below the week ending March 19 at 248,073 and the 245,903 from the week of March 12.
On a year-to-date basis through the first 12 weeks of 2016, total U.S. rail carload and intermodal volumes are down 2.6 percent annually at 5,990,944.