Railroad shipping: AAR reports volumes are up for week ending November 5

Rail traffic was again up for the week ending November 5 according to data released by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Carload volume—at 298,465—was up 3.4 percent compared to the same timeframe a year ago and behind the week ending October 29 which hit 307,00 and the previous two weeks, which hit 301,864 and 303,363, respectively.

Eastern carloads were up 1.6 percent, and out west carloads were up 4.5 percent. On a year-to-date basis, carloads—at 12,843,242—are up 1.7 percent.

Intermodal volumes at 239,180 trailers and containers were up 3.5 percent annually, which trailed the week ending October 29 at 245,404 and the previous two weeks at 244,389 and 241,999, respectively. It was also behind the week ending October 1, which hit 250,864 for the highest weekly total for 2011 and highest weekly tally since week 39 of 2007.

Intermodal volumes of 10,095,972 trailers and containers for the year-to-date are 5.2 percent ahead of last year’s pace. As LM has reported, shippers continue to turn to intermodal as an alternative to trucking movements, as they can see significant fuel savings in exchange for a longer transit time.

AAR officials recently said that the “containerization of U.S. rail intermodal service continues its upward trend,” explaining that containers accounted for 86.0 percent of U.S. rail intermodal volume in October 2011, down fractionally from September’s 86.1 percent and August’s 86.3 percent. This period, said the AAR, represents a stretch in which never before have containers accounted for such a high percentage of U.S. intermodal traffic.

This sentiment was similar at this month’s RailTrends conference presented by Progressive Railroading magazine and independent industry analyst Tony Hatch.
Both Class I and short line executives noted at RailTrends that intermodal continues to be a major driver for traffic and volume growth.

“Truckload carriers that provide intermodal service are going to the railroads to work on developing [corridors and related projects like terminals], because shippers are asking for it,” said Hatch at RailTrends. “Intermodal is running at a high level of precision.”

Of the 20 commodity groups tracked by the AAR, 15 were up annually. Metallic minerals were up 23.2 percent, and farm products excluding grain were down 17.8 percent.

Estimated ton miles for the week at 35.8 billion were up 4.4 percent and for the year-to-date, they were up 2.8 percent at 1,460.4 billion.