(The following story by John D. Boyd appeared on the Journal of Commerce website on June 8, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Intermodal volume at the largest U.S.-owned railroads surged in May at its faster year-over-year pace ever, reflecting both strength in rail-truck combination hauls and how weak traffic was in May 2009.
The Association of American Railroads said an 18.9 percent increase in intermodal traffic at major U.S. lines was the most since it began keeping such records in 1990. Average weekly volume last month reached 216,879 containers and trailers hauled by their trains, the most since October 2008 when traffic began to fall rapidly with the global financial crisis.
“The big year-over-year percentage gains in May 2010 U.S. rail traffic were partly a function of easy comparisons (May 2009 was a miserable month for rail traffic) and partly a function of real traffic growth,” the AAR said in a monthly review of economic activity.
The trade group cautioned that its May readings cover the four weeks through May 29, and so do not reflect slower Memorial Day traffic that was included in the 2009 figures. Therefore the latest month’s numbers will mildly overstate the increase, while June’s report will understate its year-over-year change.
However, intermodal has been on a strong run for many weeks this year, and through May 29 its seasonally adjusted volume was up 2.8 percent just from April. It has also risen in absolute terms for three straight months.
That stands in contrast to the volume of commodities, semi-finished factory products and heavy equipment carried in large railcars. The five U.S. Class I carriers and a few regional lines included in the AAR data saw their seasonally adjusted carloadings fall 1.1 percent from April.
Year-over-year, actual May carload traffic was 15.8 percent higher than a year earlier, but weekly average volume last month of 288,419 carloads was down from levels in both April and March of this year.
Noting the sudden braking this spring of carload traffic, which generates much more volume than intermodal, the AAR said “one month does not a trend make, but it would obviously be worrisome if the decline continued.”