North American Rail Traffic Fell 7.4% in Week Ended Nov. 16

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic fell 7.4% last week, data from the Association of American Railroads showed, as a strike at Canada's biggest rail network threatens to add to the declines this week.

Carload volume for the week ended Nov. 16 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads slid 7.6%, while intermodal traffic fell 7.1%, the trade group said Wednesday.

North American rail traffic was down 5.6% in the week ended Nov. 9. For the first 46 weeks of the year, North American volume is down 3.4%.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic tumbled 8.4% last week following a 5.9% drop a week earlier. U.S. carloads slid 8.9% amid declines in nine of the 10 commodity groups tracked. The volume of U.S. intermodal containers and trailers fell 7.9% for the week.

U.S. rail traffic is down 4.5% for the year to date, the AAR said, compared with a year-to-date decline of 4.4% reported a week earlier.

The AAR said Canadian rail traffic fell 5.5% last week amid a 4.4% decline in carloads and a 6.8% drop in intermodal units.

Conductors at Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR.T) went on strike Tuesday, disrupting shipments on a rail network that carries everything from Canada's crude-oil exports to automobiles headed to U.S. and Canadian cities.

Mexican rail traffic fell 1.4% last week, the AAR said, as a 5.6% drop in carloads more than offset a 3.7% rise in intermodal units.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 20, 2019 12:47 ET (17:47 GMT)

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