WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. rail carload traffic fell 1.6 percent (27,646 carloads) while intermodal rail traffic fell 5.1 percent (48,243 units) in October 2002 compared to October 2001, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported on November 7.
The significant drop in intermodal traffic in October largely reflects the effects of the 10-day port shutdown on the West Coast earlier this month. During the shutdown, tens of thousands of international containers could not be loaded onto railroad flat cars for transport inland or unloaded from flat cars onto waiting steamships. A recent study sponsored by the AAR found that nearly 250 doublestack trains per week originate on the West Coast and serve all the major long-haul U.S. markets — up from one per week in 1984. Today, approximately half of U.S. intermodal rail traffic consists of U.S. imports or exports.
“Prior to October, year-to-date intermodal originations on U.S. railroads were up 5.3 percent, with volumes rising through the period,” noted AAR Vice President Craig F. Rockey. “We expect that over the course of the next few weeks, some of the lower volume from this month will be made up as the backlog gets cleared. Railroads certainly lost some intermodal traffic because it was redirected or shipped by air instead of steamship, but railroads have had no trouble handling the surge of traffic once it started moving again.”
Commodities that saw U.S. rail carload traffic gains in October 2002 included metallic ores (up 15.6 percent, or 12,151 carloads), motor vehicles and equipment (up 6.0 percent, or 7,474 carloads), and primary metal products (up 8.3 percent, or 5,013 carloads). Major commodity categories that saw declines in October 2002 including coal (down 3.9 percent, or 27,190 carloads); grain (down 10.5 percent, or 13,714 carloads); and crushed stone, sand and gravel (down 6.8 percent, or 7,722 carloads). All told, 11 of the 19 commodity categories tracked by the AAR saw carload decreases in October 2002 compared with October 2001.
Through October, total year-to-date U.S. rail carloadings totaled 14,554,983 cars, down 1.0 percent (151,680 carloads), including year-to-date declines in carloads of coal (down 3.5 percent, or 207,535 carloads), grain (down 4.1 percent, or 38,794 carloads), and primary forest products (down 11.7 percent, or 24,804 carloads). On the positive side, carloads of motor vehicles and equipment were up 4.2 percent (43,613 carloads) in 2002 through October, carloads of metallic ores were up 6.8 percent (42,166 carloads), and carloads of chemicals were up 1.9 percent (23,063 carloads).
Year-to-date U.S. intermodal traffic through October totaled 7,920,631 trailers and containers, up 4.1 percent (308,602 trailers and containers). Total volume through the first 44 weeks of 2002 was estimated at 1.262 trillion ton-miles, up 0.7 percent from last year.
Canadian intermodal traffic was up 13.6 percent (25,659 units) in October 2002, while Canadian rail carload traffic was down 1.2 percent (3,710 carloads) during the month. Coal carloadings were down 19.2 percent (8,617 carloads) and grain carloadings continued to decline, falling 15.8 percent (7,930 carloads) in October. On the positive side, carloads of chemicals were up 11.8 percent (7,129 carloads) and carloads of motor vehicles and equipment rose 11.9 percent (4,494 carloads).
For the first ten months of 2002, Canadian carload traffic totaled 2,630,631 cars, down 2.7 percent (71,626 carloads), while Canadian intermodal traffic through October 2002 totaled 1,702,310 trailers and containers, up 10.2 percent (157,307 units).
Carloads originated on Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), a major Mexican railroad, were up 49.9 percent (15,349 carloads) in October, while intermodal originations were up 96.9 percent (9,367 trailers and containers). For the first ten months of 2002, TFM carload originations were up 12.4 percent (37,950 carloads), while TFM intermodal traffic was up 26.9 percent (28,064 units).
For just the week ended November 2, the AAR reported the following totals for U.S. railroads: 339,743 carloads, down 4.7 percent from the corresponding week in 2001, with loadings down 5.2 percent in the East and down 4.3 percent in the West; intermodal volume of 203,873 trailers and containers, up 7.4 percent; and total volume of an estimated 29.3 billion ton-miles, down 4.2 percent from the equivalent week last year.
For Canadian railroads during the week ended November 2, the AAR reported volume of 61,819 carloads, down 4.1percent from last year; and 42,282 trailers and containers, up 11.4 percent from the corresponding week in 2001.
Combined cumulative volume for the first 44 weeks of 2002 on 16 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads totaled 17,185,614 carloads, down 1.3 percent (223,306 carloads) from last year; and 9,622,941 trailers and containers, up 5.1 percent (465,909 units) from 2001’s first 44 weeks.