(The Association of American Railroads issued the following on October 22, 2009.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Association of American Railroads today reported that rail traffic remains down year over year for the week ended Oct. 17, 2009. U.S railroads reported originating 275,545 carloads, down 15.4 percent compared with the same week in 2008. Regionally, carloads were down 14.2 percent in the West and 17 percent in the East.
It was the same week last year that notable declines in rail carloads (2.4 percent) and rail intermodal (2.8 percent) traffic showed the first significant signs of the nation’s economic downturn. Therefore, year over comparisons for weekly rail traffic may appear to improve going forward.
Intermodal traffic totaled 206,139 trailers or containers, down 12.6 percent from a year ago. In the year-over-year comparison container volume fell 6.7 percent and trailer volume dropped 35.2 percent.
Eighteen of the 19 carload freight commodity groups were down from the same week last year. However, grain mill products were up 7.3 percent. Declines in commodity groups ranged from 2.7 percent for petroleum products to 74.7 percent for metallic ores.
For the first 41 weeks of 2009, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 10,930,879 carloads, down 18.1 percent from 2008; 7,762,379 trailers or containers, down 16.5 percent, and total volume of an estimated 1.17 trillion ton-miles, down 17.1 percent. Total volume on U.S. railroads for the week ending October 17 was estimated at 31 billion ton-miles, off 13.9 percent from the same week last year.
Canadian railroads reported volume of 69,146 cars for the week, down 10.4 percent from last year, and 41,835 trailers or containers, down 11.3 percent. For the first 41 weeks of 2009, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 2,514,593 carloads, down 21.7 percent from last year, and 1,676,041 trailers or containers, down 16 percent.
Mexican railroads reported originated volume of 12,293 cars, down 9.5 percent from the same week last year, and 7,027 trailers or containers, down 11.3 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 41 weeks of 2009 was reported as 468,609 carloads, down 12.9 percent from last year; and 217,596 trailers or containers, down 17.8 percent.
Combined North American rail volume for the first 41 weeks of 2009 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 13,914,081 carloads, down 18.6 percent from last year, and 9,656,016 trailers and containers, down 16.5 percent from last year.