North America Rail Traffic Fell 1.9% in Week Ended March 30

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail volume of carloads and intermodal units slipped 1.9% last week amid a steep drop in U.S. coal traffic, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.

Carload volume for the week ended March 30 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads fell 5.2%, while intermodal traffic rose 1.5%, the trade group said.

North American rail traffic was 3.4% lower in the week ended March 23. For the first 13 weeks of the year, North American volume is down 1.3%.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 4.6% last week as carloads slid 8.9%, marked by a 26.3% drop in coal shipments. U.S. intermodal volume edged down 0.4% last week.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic is down 1.8% for the year to date, but whether that indicates a looming U.S. recession remains to be seen, according to Jim Blaze, an analyst at freight-markets data provider FreightWaves.

Mr. Blaze said the decline "suggests that the economy isn't humming, but that alone is not predictive of a recession."

The AAR said rail traffic rose 4.2% in Canada and 14.2% in Mexico for the week ended March 30.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 03, 2019 10:50 ET (14:50 GMT)

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