It’s no secret that U.S. rail traffic had a rough go in 2019—numbers were down pretty much across the board. And while the Association of American Railroads (AAR) blames a number of offenders, it’s hopeful that 2020 can bring some much-needed certainty to the industry.
Richard Everett (Dick) Briggs, perhaps the most outsized personality in a railroad industry historically chock-a-block with outsized personalities, died Dec. 6, barely three weeks shy of his 81st birthday. He retired as Executive Vice President from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) in 1995.
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ended Dec. 21, 2019, and, for this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 507,589 carloads and intermodal units, down 10.5% compared with the same week last year.
The Clean Water Act (CWA) imposes permitting obligations on “point sources.” Should those obligations apply to railroad cars, which move freely from state to state? The U.S. railroad industry, through the Association of American Railroads, has asked the Surface Transportation Board to take up the question and to rule that any CWA permitting obligations are preempted by the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act.
Ian Jefferies, President and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, joined with Marc Brazeau, President and CEO of the Railway Association of Canada (RAC), and Iker de Luisa Plazas, Director General, Asociación Mexicana de Ferrocarriles (AMF), in calling for quick ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ended Dec. 14, 2019, and, for this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 520,589 carloads and intermodal units, down 8.5% compared with the same week last year.
In a Dec. 13, 2019 report, “A Major but Little-Known Supporter of Climate Denial: Freight Railroads,” The Atlantic paints a blistering portrait of U.S. Class I railroads, accusing them and the Association of American Railroads as being “at the center of the climate-denial movement nearly since it began,” and whose “efforts to keep coal burning—and all those tons of carbon flowing into the sky—have been hidden in plain sight for decades.”
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ended Dec. 7, 2019, and, for this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 517,130 carloads and intermodal units, down 9.4% compared with the same week last year.
Here is a different perspective regarding the decline in U.S. rail carloads, and how long ago it may have started. Lee A. Clair, Managing Partner at Transportation and Logistics Advisors (T&LA, Highland Park, Ill.) originally authored these observations.
Following a Week 47 gain attributable to timing—Thanksgiving 2018 falling one week earlier than in 2019—U.S. rail traffic fell off a cliff during Week 48—again, attributable to timing, so it’s not nearly as bad as it looks. However, all things considered, volumes for November 2019 were dismal, and the first 11 months of 2019 were nothing to write home about.