Rail freight traffic continued to slide last week with the Association of American Railroads reporting that for the week ending April 18 that traffic was down 23.3 percent.
Railroads handled 403,283 carloads and intermodal units during the week. The comparison is with the same week in 2019.
Total carloads for the week ending April 18 were 189,598 carloads, down 27.5 percent while intermodal volume was 213,685 containers and trailers, down 19.1 percent.
In a news release, AAR said none of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2019.
Among the declines were coal, down 35,555 carloads, to 48,423; motor vehicles and parts, down 14,459 carloads, to 1,943; and non-metallic minerals, down 5,188 carloads, to 30,377.
“Rail volumes suffered again last week as extremely difficult times for rail customers and the economy continued,” said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray in a statement.
For the first 16 weeks of 2020, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,592,286 carloads, down 9.5 percent from the same point last year; and 3,823,931 intermodal units, down 10.4 percent from last year.
Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 16 weeks of 2020 was 7,416,217 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 10 percent compared with last year.
Tags: AAR freight statistics, Association of American Railroads, freight statistics, rail freight traffic, U.S. freight traffic, U.S. freight volume, U.S. Rail Freight Traffic
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