New trends for the price of rail transport

Filed in archive Market Overview on December 17, 2006

(Note: Here is the third part of the Logistics Management's summary on trends in price of different modes of transportation)

It's difficult to interview Wall Street analysts about the railroad industry without rethinking our forecasts for average rail industry prices. In October 2006, average prices increased 0.7%, with a 0.9% hike in carload prices and no change in intermodal. Taking into account some of Wall Street's price forecasts, we now predict the escalation rate for rail-freight service will be 7.9% in the final quarter of 2006 compared to the same period a year ago, not 6.1% as we had previously forecast. In the last three months of 2007, rail prices will continue to escalate at a 6.1% pace, up from the former 4.1% prediction. In 2007, average annual price hikes will be 7.2% for intermodal service and 7.7% for carload service.