(Reuters circulated the following article on April 6.)
WASHINGTON — Output of U.S. transportation services rose for the fifth straight month in January to a fresh record high, the Department of Transportation said on Tuesday.
The Transportation Services Index, or TSI, rose 0.8 percent in January to 121.4. The index was up 4.9 percent from January 2003. December’s reading was revised to 120.4 from the originally reported 118.5.
The TSI Freight Index fell 0.9 percent from December to 119.8, while the Passenger Index rose 4.9 percent to 125.1 — also a record, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics said.
The TSI is a measure of the month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the for-hire transportation industries, including railroad, air, truck and inland waterways transportation, pipeline transportation and local transit.
Research on the TSI, which is seasonally adjusted and chain-weighted against the 1996 base year, began in early 2001 and includes data from 1990.