(Reuters circulated the following article on May 6.)
WASHINGTON — Output of U.S. transportation services rose in February to its second highest level on record, the Department of Transportation said on Thursday.
The Transportation Services Index, or TSI, rose 1.4 percent to 120.4 in February from 118.7 in January. The February rise followed a 1.5 percent decline the previous month.
The index was up 5.1 percent from 114.5 in February 2003, the department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said. BTS revised the January index downward from 121.4 reported a month ago.
The TSI Freight Index rose 1.3 percent from January to 120.6, while the Passenger Index also increased 1.6 percent to 119.7, the BTS 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.