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During the third quarter, rail-car orders increased more than 200 percent to 20,315 units compared with 6,726 units in third-quarter 2003, according to data recently released by the American Railway Car Institute Committee (ARCI) of the Railway Supply Institute. Orders also rose 3 percent compared with second-quarter orders for 19,770 cars, and 13 percent compared with first-quarter orders for 17,962 cars.

The third-quarter total includes orders for 5,741 covered hoppers, 4,950 platforms, 3,611 tank cars, 3,292 aluminum open-top hoppers and 1,726 gondolas.

Quarterly car deliveries increased as well. The third-quarter total of 11,790 deliveries rose 42 percent, 17.8 percent and 17 percent compared with third-quarter 2003 (8,251), and first- (10,012) and second-quarter 2004 (10,071) deliveries, respectively.

Meanwhile, ARCI reported the car backlog reached 61,052 units on Oct. 1 — a 91.6 percent increase compared with third-quarter 2003's backlog of 31,858 cars. The third-quarter backlog also represents a 44.4 percent and 18.5 percent increase compared with a 42,242-car backlog as of April 1 and 51,446-car backlog as of July 1, respectively.