North American Rail Traffic Fell 3.3% in Week Ended Sept. 14

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic fell 3.3% last week, data from the Association of American Railroads showed.

Carload volume for the week ended Sept. 14 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads fell 5%, while intermodal traffic slipped 1.7%, the trade group said Wednesday.

North American rail traffic was 6.2% lower in the week ended Sept. 7. For the first 37 weeks of the year, North American volume is down 2.6%.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 4.8% last week after tumbling 6.6% a week earlier. U.S. carloads fell 6.1% amid declines in nine of the 10 commodity groups tracked, while the volume of U.S. intermodal containers and trailers fell 3.5% for the week.

U.S. rail traffic is down 3.7% for the year to date.

The AAR said rail traffic fell 1.2% in Canada last week, as a 3% drop in carloads more than offset a 0.9% rise in intermodal units.

Rail traffic jumped 8.8% in Mexico last week, bouncing back from a 14.1% drop a week earlier, the AAR said, with intermodal units surging 16.7% and carloads up 1.7%.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 18, 2019 12:42 ET (16:42 GMT)

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