The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported this week that rail carload and intermodal volumes for the week ending October 10 were again mixed.
Carloads were down 5.8 percent annually to 281,073, which was below the week ending October 3 at 290,275 and the week ending September 26 at 285,856.
The AAR said that five of the ten carload commodity groups it tracks saw annual gains for the week ending October 10, with miscellaneous carloads up 24.4 percent to 10,256 carloads and motor vehicles and parts up 2 percent to 17,846. Petroleum and petroleum products were down 16.6 percent to 13,621, and metallic ores and minerals dropped 23.5 percent to 20,084.
Intermodal containers and trailers were up 0.5 percent annually to 275,160, which was below the weeks ending October 3 and September 26, which hit 282,018 and 280,844, respectively.
Through the first 40 weeks of 2015, AAR said that U.S. carloads are down 4.4 percent annually at 11,161,759 and intermodal units are up 2.4 percent at 10,692,427.