By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
Although the total traffic count thus far in 2022 for freight railroads tracked by the Association of American Railroads is down more than 2%, short lines’ collective volume isn’t trailing 2021 by as wide a margin.
Through 2022’s first 40 weeks ending Oct. 8, 468 regionals and short lines in the United States and Canada registered 5.2 million carloads, down 0.8% compared with volume in the same 2021 period, according to the RailConnect Index of Short Line Traffic. Compiled by Wabtec Corp.’s GE Transportation subsidiary, the index shows volume is down in nine of 14 commodity groups.
The gainers were stone, clay and aggregates at 6.1% (to 565,475 units); petroleum and coke at 2.8% (to 179,271); coal at 2.7% (to 330,391); waste and scrap at 2.1% (to 249,631); and farm and food shipments excluding grain at 0.5% (to 233,568).
The biggest decliners? Other carloads, which dropped 16.9% to 68,414; metals and metal products, which fell 4.6% to 353,203; lumber and forest products, which declined 3.9% to 238,390; intermodal, which dipped 2.8% to 980,251; and motor vehicles and equipment, which slipped 2.7% to 120,700.
Several short-line industry executives shared the state of their traffic fortunes to this point in 2022 via emails sent to RailPrime.
The primary traffic generator for the Paducah & Louisville Railway — which so far has increased 2022 carloads by 15% — is coal. Paducah & Louisville RailwayWeak motor vehicles volume into the fourth quarter has hampered traffic for the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Co. (IHB), which operates 320 miles of mainline track and 266 miles of yard and side tracks in the Chicago area, and typically registers 170,000 or more carloads annually.
“We are down slightly less than 1% year over year. We have not seen the strong return of auto traffic,” wrote IHB General Manager John Wright.
It’s been an up-and-down year so far for the Indiana Rail Road Co. (INRD), which operates a 250-mile network in central and southwest Indiana, and central Illinois. To date, the regional’s bulk (coal-grain) traffic is up 3%, but intermodal volume is down 12% and general merchandise carloads have declined 6%.
“The bulk increase is a direct result of coal consumption driven by high natural gas prices,” wrote INRD President and CEO Dewayne Swindall. “The intermodal decrease is a result of supply chain disruptions and the known issues in Asia with lockdowns, [and] general merchandise traffic is driven by the plastics and aggregate markets.”
For Ironhorse Resources Inc. — which owns and operates eight short lines/switching companies — frac sand has been the business-building culprit for much of 2022. However, demand in that sector has finally strengthened and the company’s carloads are increasing after remaining relatively flat in the first and second quarters, wrote Ironhorse Vice President of Operations and Safety Greg Wheeler.
“The energy market, in particular frac sand, became active again during the second quarter and has continued into the third quarter. This volume has allowed us to be up in carloads versus last year and up about 8% from what we budgeted for carloads [27,213 units] this year,” he said.
Recent new business has helped propel the Sierra Northern Railway’s traffic to a double-digit gain. Sierra Northern Railway The Belt Railway Co. of Chicago’s (BRC) traffic also is up year to date — by about 2% — but not because of any particular commodity group. The largest U.S. intermediate terminal railroad so far is avoiding major weather impacts this year as it manages 28 miles of mainlines and more than 300 miles of switching tracks in the nation’s biggest rail hub.
“The most significant driver for our slight increase is we did not experience a record blizzard in February that we did in February of 2021, when we had several feet of snowfall in a very short period of time that impacted our operations/volume for several weeks,” wrote BRC President and GM Percy Fields.
Meanwhile, it’s been a strong traffic-building year so far for the Paducah & Louisville Railway (PAL), a regional that operates 280 miles of track between Paducah and Louisville, Kentucky. The railroad’s carloads are up 15% year over year.
“The primary strength in traffic is from coal, but most commodities are showing some increases,” wrote PAL President and CEO Tom Garrett.
Volume also is up for the Sierra Northern Railway (SERA) — way up. Carloads have increased by a double-digit percentage compared with the same period last year in part because the 100-mile California short line has attracted several new customers, wrote SERA President and CEO Kennan Beard.
“If we exclude this new customer traffic, our business is still holding its own this year with some customers, such as lumber seeing little to no increase,” he said. “But other customers like our propane transloader are seeing an increase greater than 5% for this year.”
