A sharp downturn in the final week, month and quarter brought an end to the worst year for U.S. rail traffic since 2004. The years 2005 through 2007 were consecutively the three best years in history, according to the Association of American Railroads. But 2008 came in fourth.
"It's not surprising that U.S. rail traffic in December and the fourth quarter was down so much -- we all know that the economy is in a world of hurt right now," said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray. "That said, railroads' long term future remains bright."
In 2008, U.S. freight railroads originated 16,572,709 carloads (down 380,885 carloads, or 2.2 percent), while intermodal originations were 11,517,240 trailers and containers (down 509,391 units, or 4.2 percent), AAR said.
In the fourth quarter carloads were down 8.2 percent, while intermodal loadings fell 7.7 percent. In December, carloads were down 14.2 percent, while intermodal originations fell 13.7 percent.
In week 53, which ended Jan. 3, 2009, carloads were down 16.7 percent compared with a year earlier, with every commodity losing ground except the miscellaneous grouping of all other. Intermodal traffic for the final week was down 10.5 percent year-over-year, with trailers off 15 percent and containers falling 9.4 percent.
(The preceding article by Thomas L. Gallagher appeared on the Traffic World Web site at www.trafficworld.com on January 8, 2009.)
