Late surge for US carload freight
Total U.S. rail traffic was 567,252 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending December 22, up 4.2% from the year-ago week.
Total U.S. rail traffic was 567,252 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending December 22, up 4.2% from the year-ago week.
Traffic on U.S. railroads was 568,941 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending December 15, up 3.9% compared with 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.
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.
In observation of Veterans Day (Nov. 12) in the United States, Kansas City Southern (KCS) unveiled 4006, a 13-year-old EMD SD70ACE based at the railroad’s Shreveport, La., Locomotive Shop, newly painted in a U.S. flag- and military-inspired scheme. KCS hosted a photo shoot with the locomotive and its Shreveport-based military active-duty and veteran employees.
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.