North American Rail Traffic Fell 8% in Week Ended Oct. 26

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic fell 8% last week amid across-the-board declines in freight categories in the U.S., data from the Association of American Railroads showed.

Carload volume for the week ended Oct. 26 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads slid 8.6%, while intermodal traffic fell 7.3%, the trade group said Wednesday.

North American rail traffic was 8.2% lower in the week ended Oct. 19. For the first 43 weeks of the year, North American volume is now down 3.2%, compared with a year-to-date drop of 3.1% reported a week earlier.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic tumbled 8.8% last week following an 8.6% drop a week earlier. U.S. carloads down 9.4%, with declines in all 10 commodity groups tracked. The volume of U.S. intermodal containers and trailers fell 8.3% for the week.

U.S. rail traffic is now down 4.3% for the year to date, compared with a decline of 4.2% reported a week earlier, the AAR said.

The AAR said Canadian rail traffic fell 6% last week amid a 7.9% drop in carloads and a 3.6% decline in intermodal units.

Mexican rail traffic fell 3.4% last week, the AAR said, with carloads off 1.1% and intermodal units down 5.6%.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 30, 2019 13:26 ET (17:26 GMT)

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