Intermodal traffic takes up slack carload volume
For the week of December 8, U.S. weekly rail traffic was 570,225 carloads and intermodal units, up 3.1% from the same week in 2017.
For the week of December 8, U.S. weekly rail traffic was 570,225 carloads and intermodal units, up 3.1% from the same week in 2017.
After a mostly steady climb through this year, rail freight volumes on Class I railroads are on a downgrade, and uncertainty in 2019 is looming like a blind curve in the dark.
While U.S. grain farmers wrangle with tariffs, bankruptcies and uncertainty, suppliers north of the border helped Canadian Pacific ring up another month of record shipments.
GM’s planned plant closings shadowed already-declining shipments of vehicles moving by rail in the U.S. despite a bounceback by commodities in the latest week’s data.
Amid roiling markets, weaker commodities and intermodal shipments may be signaling a correction for U.S. rail freight.
Canadian Pacific reports that it has broken all-time records for grain shipments, moving 2.64 million metric tonnes (MMT) of Canadian grain and grain products in October, the railroad’s biggest month ever for this commodity. The previous record was set in September 2017. CP also set a new record for biofuel shipments.
Norfolk Southern made a key executive appointment as it took another step in its previously-announced plan to implement Precision Scheduled Railroading.
Surging shipments of crude-by-rail are fast putting other commodities in the rearview, while U.S. trade policy slows grain exports by domestic growers, according to the Association of American Railroads.
Carload commodity freight on U.S. railroads continued to slow but intermodal shipments set a brisker pace through the first 10 months of this year.
If the latest commodity carload data are any indication, there could be uncertainty ahead for the U.S. economic rally.