North American Rail Traffic Fell 0.6% in Week Ended May 4

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic fell 0.6% last week, as a decline in intermodal units more than offset a rise in the volume of carloads, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.

Carload volume for the week ended May 4 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads rose 1.3%, while intermodal traffic fell 2.6%, the trade group said.

North American rail traffic was 1.5% lower in the week ended April 27. For the first 18 weeks of the year, North American volume is down 1.2%.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 2% last week amid a 4.9% decline in the volume of intermodal containers and trailers. Carloads rose 1% for the week, as shipments of coal, the biggest of the 10 carload commodity groups tracked, jumped 8.6%.

U.S. rail traffic is down 1.9% for the year to date, the AAR said.

The group said rail traffic rose 3.5% in Canada last week, with carloads up 3.3% and intermodal units rising 3.7%.

Rail traffic turned positive in Mexico last week after three weeks of declines, as an 11.3% rise in intermodal volume more than offset a 2.7% drop in carloads, resulting in overall growth of 3.3% for the week.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2019 12:44 ET (16:44 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.