U.S. railroad: still going down!

Filed in archive Market Overview on February 19, 2007

United States railroads freight traffic continue to be hampered by winter storms, as traffic was down again for the week ending January 27 compared to the corresponding week in 2006, according to data released by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) published in the beginning of this month.

According to Logistics Management, the AAR also reported that of the 19 carload commodity groups it tracks, only one of them-coal at 0.8 percent-percent, was up year-over-year. And the continued decline in the automotive and housing markets were evidenced with loadings of motor vehicles and equipment down 13.7 percent and loadings of lumber and wood products down 26.7 percent.

The AAR also reported that cumulative loadings for the first four weeks of the year totaled 1,235,173 carloads, which represents a 6.6 percent decline from 2006. And the 879,500 trailers or containers reported year-to-date is off 1.5 percent, as is total volume of an estimated 125.3 billion ton-miles, which is down 5.4 percent from last year.