North American Rail Traffic Fell 5.8% in Week Ended Oct. 12

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic fell 5.8% last week amid further steep drops in carloads, data from the Association of American Railroads showed.

Carload volume for the week ended Oct. 12 on a dozen reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads tumbled 7.6%, while intermodal traffic fell 4.1%, the trade group said Wednesday.

North American rail traffic was 6.3% lower in the week ended Oct. 5. For the first 41 weeks of the year, North American volume is down 2.9%.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 7% last week on top of a 7.1% drop a week earlier. U.S. carloads fell 7.5%, with declines in eight of the 10 commodity groups tracked. The volume of U.S. intermodal containers and trailers fell 6.6% for the week.

U.S. rail traffic is now down 4.1% for the year to date, compared with a decline of 4% reported a week earlier, the AAR said.

The AAR said Canadian rail traffic fell 2.4% last week, as an 8.3% drop in carloads more than offset a 4.8% rise in intermodal units.

Mexican rail traffic was fell 1.9% last week, the AAR said, with carloads down 5.7% and intermodal units up 2.1%.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 16, 2019 12:41 ET (16:41 GMT)

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