WASHINGTON -- The Association of American Railroads (AAR) said today (April 23) that carload freight volumes and intermodal traffic volumes were down again on United States railroads for the week ending April 18 compared to the same week last year, Web site www.logisticsmgmt.com reported.
Weekly carload freight, which does not include intermodal data, was 255,269 cars, down 24.3 percent from the same timeframe last year but 2.8 percent better than the week ending April 11, said the AAR. And carload freight loadings were down 20.6 percent in the West and 28.6 percent in the East. Intermodal loadings, which are not included in carload data, totaled 183,141 trailers or containers, down 18.3 percent compared to the same timeframe a year ago and 2.7 percent better than the week ending April 11. Trailer volume was down 37.7 percent, and container volume decreased 12.9 percent.
Weekly railroad volume was estimated at 27.2 billion ton-miles by the AAR which was down 23.2 percent from the same timeframe last year.
And for the first 15 weeks of 2009, the AAR said U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 4,025,476 carloads, which is down 17.7 percent from the first 15 weeks of 2008. Trailers or containers at 2,789,760 were down 16.1 percent, and total volume at an estimated 427.3 billion ton-miles was off by 16.6 percent year-over-year.
Of the 19 commodity groups tracked by the AAR, none were up year-over-year, with the "all other" carloads down 12.6 percent. Grain mill loadings were down 9.3 percent and lumber and metallic ores were off by 63.6 percent.
(The preceding appeared on the Web site www.logisticsmgmt.com on April 23, 2009.)
I'm trying to figure out what if any kind of new business the railroads may be getting anytime soon. The auto plants shutting down, timber products taking a serious plunge, perhaps half the container traffic from overseas. This doesn't look good for a rebound of any kind. The railroads are taking the same hit as the rest of us.
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