For the week ending Dec. 25, 2021, U.S. rail traffic was up 3.7% over the same week last year; total carloads came in 8.7% higher while intermodal volume continued its downward trend, falling 0.4%, the Association of American Railroads reported on Dec. 29.
U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Dec. 18, 2021was 504,099 carloads and intermodal units, down 3.1% compared with the same week last year, based on 234,704 carloads—up 1.7% compared with the same week in 2020—and intermodal volume of 269,395 containers and trailers—down 6.9%, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported on Dec. 22.
U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Dec. 11, 2021 continued to suffer, as a near-11% fall-off in intermodal volume erased a small increase in carloads, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported on Dec. 15.
No two words torment railroad executives and their investors more than “reciprocal switching”—a potential Surface Transportation Board (STB) decree that a railroad with sole physical access to a shipper facility transfer (switch) a shipper’s cars to a junction point with a second (competing) railroad. The second railroad pays a compensatory per-car switching fee whose reasonableness is determined by the STB.
For the week ending Dec. 4, 2021, U.S. rail traffic fell 2.8% from the same point last year, with an intermodal volume drop cutting a carload gain, the Association of American Railroads reported on Dec. 8.
Union Pacific (UP) on Dec. 6 published a 2021 Climate Action Plan addressing its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Dec. 2 issued two new Security Directives for “higher-risk” passenger railroads and rail transit agencies and freight railroads, respectively, to “strengthen” cybersecurity.
Of the 20 carload commodity categories the Association of American Railroads tracks, 15 have seen carload increases on U.S. Class I railroads through the first 11 months of 2021, with coal leading the way, AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray reported on Dec. 1.
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has adopted a final rule establishing a new “emergency temporary trackage rights class exemption” that could be invoked during natural disasters, accidents or derailments; the rule is effective Dec. 30, 2021.
For the week ending Nov. 20, 2021, U.S. Class I railroads hauled 237,244 carloads, up 1.6% from the same point last year, but the 271,065 intermodal containers and trailers they moved fell 10% from 2020, the Association of American Railroads reported on Nov. 24.