North American Rail Traffic Fell 3.1% in Week Ended July 27

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic fell 3.1% last week amid more volume declines at U.S. railroads, data from the Association of American Railroads showed.

Carload volume for the week ended July 27 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads slipped 2%, while intermodal traffic fell 4.3%, the trade group said Wednesday.

North American rail traffic was 3.2% lower in the week ended July 20. For the first 30 weeks of the year, North American volume is now down 2.3%, compared with a year-to-date decline of 2.2% reported a week earlier.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic slid 4.4% last week after falling 4.9% a week earlier. U.S. carloads fell 3.5%, paced by a 7.4% drop in shipments of coal, the largest of the 10 commodity groups tracked. The volume of U.S. intermodal containers and trailers fell 5.3% for the week.

U.S. rail traffic is down 3.4% for the year to date, the AAR said.

The AAR said rail traffic rose 1.1% in Canada last week, as a 2.8% rise in carloads more than offset a 0.9% drop in intermodal units.

Canadian rail traffic is up 2.1% for the year to date.

Rail traffic fell 1.9% in Mexico last week, the AAR said, with drops of 2.2% in carloads and 1.7% in intermodal units.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 31, 2019 13:28 ET (17:28 GMT)

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