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A 35.9 percent decline in container traffic and intermodal rate increases by western U.S. carriers caught up to the Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. (PWRR) last year. The regional incurred a net loss of $652,000 vs. net income of $1 million in 2006 and operating revenue dropped 8 percent year over year to $26.2 million.

The container volume drop accounted for $1.2 million of the operating revenue decline. In addition, the rate increases “resulted in steamship lines using all-water routings to the East Coast for a larger portion of container traffic, thereby significantly reducing the volume of such traffic shipped cross-country by rail,” PWRR officials said in a prepared statement.

The regional also reported a $603,000 drop-off in operating revenue from construction aggregates traffic, which remained weak throughout 2007.

In the good news department, annual operating expenses decreased by $366,000, or 1.3 percent, because of the “highly fixed nature” of most of the regional’s costs, PWRR said.