AAR notes February freight gains

Despite harsh winter weather in much of the U.S. during February, U.S. freight carload traffic and intermodal traffic rose during the month measured against February 2010, the Association of American Railroads said Monday. Freight carload traffic rose 4.2%, while intermodal advanced 10.3%, compared with one year ago.

The year-over-year increase for February 2011 is the smallest since July 2010, which may be attributed to heavy snowfall over most of the country that made rail operations more difficult.

February 2011 marks the twelfth straight month for carload increases and the 15th straight month for intermodal traffic increases on a year-over-year basis, showing the continued gradual upward trend in rail traffic, AAR said. On a seasonally adjusted basis, carloads were down 3% and intermodal was up just 0.1% from January 2011.

“Rail traffic can be negatively affected by winter storms, and we got some of that in February,” said AAR Senior Vice President John Gray. “That said, U.S. rail carloads have now increased for 12 straight months and intermodal loadings for 15 straight months. Rising consumer confidence, an improving employment picture, and higher manufacturing output are just some of the indicators that, along with rising rail volumes, point to an economy that seems poised to continue to grow in the months ahead.”

Overall, 15 of 20 commodity categories saw carload gains on U.S. railroads in February 2011 compared with February 2010.

AAR also notes that as of March 1, 306,316 freight cars, or 20.2% of the fleet, were in storage. That is a decrease of 12,457 cars from February 1, 2011.