North American Rail Traffic Fell 5.6% in Week Ended Nov. 9

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic fell 5.6% last week, data from the Association of American Railroads showed.

Carload volume for the week ended Nov. 9 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads fell 4.8%, while intermodal traffic slid 6.5%, the trade group said Wednesday.

North American rail traffic was down 8% in the week ended Nov. 2. For the first 45 weeks of the year, North American volume is now down 3.4%, compared with a year-to-date drop of 3.3% reported a week earlier.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 5.9% last week following an 8.8% drop a week earlier. U.S. carloads fell 5.1% amid declines in nine of the 10 commodity groups tracked. The volume of U.S. intermodal containers and trailers tumbled 6.7% for the week.

U.S. rail traffic is down 4.4% for the year to date, the AAR said.

The AAR said Canadian rail traffic fell 5.7% last week amid a 5.5% drop in carloads and a 5.9% decline in intermodal units.

Mexican rail traffic fell 1.3% last week, the AAR said, as a 5.5% slide in intermodal units more than offset a 2.8% rise in carloads.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 13, 2019 13:08 ET (18:08 GMT)

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