U.S. rail traffic growth topped 4 percent in Week 24

U.S. rail traffic rose 4.1 percent to 558,098 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending June 16 compared with traffic in the same week a year ago, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data.

Total carloads rose 1.9 percent to 269,748 units during the week, while intermodal volume climbed 6.3 percent to 288,350 containers and trailers compared with the same week in 2017.

Seven of the 10 carload commodity groups that AAR tracks on a weekly basis posted increases compared with the year-ago period. They included petroleum and petroleum products, up 1,924 carloads to 11,256; nonmetallic minerals, up 1,827 carloads to 39,994; and grain, up 1,407 carloads to 23,086.

Commodity groups that logged decreases compared with a year ago were coal, down 1,420 carloads to 85,538; miscellaneous carloads, down 1,287 carloads to 9,443; and motor vehicles and parts, down 300 carloads to 16,891.

Meanwhile, Canadian railroads reported 84,254 carloads for the week, up 7 percent, and 69,872 intermodal units, up 3.1 percent compared with the same week in 2017. Mexican railroads posted 22,553 carloads for the week and 17,496 intermodal units.

For the first 24 weeks of this year:
• total combined U.S. traffic rose 4.6 percent to 12,501,071 carloads and intermodal units compared with the same period last year;
• Canadian railroads reported cumulative rail traffic volume of 3,533,133 carloads, containers and trailers, up 3.5 percent year over year; and
• Mexican railroads' cumulative traffic totaled 913,398 carloads and intermodal containers and trailers. Mexican railroads' traffic numbers were not reported for the 2017 period.