North American Rail Traffic Falls 7% in Week Ended Aug. 29

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic fell 7% last week, as declines in carloads more than offset continued improvement in intermodal loadings, data from the Association of American Railroads showed.

Carload volume fell 15.3% for the week ended Aug. 29 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads, while intermodal traffic rose 1.6%, the trade group said Wednesday.

In the week ended Aug. 22, North American rail traffic fell 5.1%. For the first 35 weeks of the year, North American traffic is now down 11%, compared with a year-to-date decline of 11.2% reported a week earlier.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 6.2% last week, compared with a drop of 3.3% a week earlier, as carloads tumbled 15.9% amid declines in all 10 commodity groups tracked.

Analysts at Citigroup, however, said the week-over-week decline was likely related to Tropical Storm Marco and Hurricane Laura and not a significant step backwards in terms of a volume recovery trend.

The volume of intermodal containers and trailers rose 3.4% in the U.S. last week, wrapping up the best month in terms of intermodal loadings since October 2018 and the fifth best intermodal month ever, the AAR said.

"Despite the pandemic and the associated economic dislocations, an enormous amount of freight continues to move on railroads and other transportation modes," John Gray, AAR senior vice president, said.

U.S. rail traffic is now down 11.8% for the year to date, the AAR said, compared with a decline of 11.9% reported a week ago.

Canadian rail traffic fell 8.6% last week, as carloads slumped 15.3% while intermodal units edged down 0.8%. Canadian rail traffic is down 8.6% for the first 35 weeks of the year.

Mexican rail traffic fell 11.4% for the week amid, with carloads down 8.1% and intermodal units sliding 15.1%. Mexican rail traffic is down 10.7% for the year so far, the AAR said.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 02, 2020 13:39 ET (17:39 GMT)

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