The Association of American Railroads said this week that some rail freight traffic that lost volume during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has now “completely recovered.”
AAR Senior Vice President John Gray said in a statement that some other commodities are close to recovering lost ground.
“For example, April set a new all-time record for intermodal, driven by surging international trade and strong consumer spending,” Gray said.
“Meanwhile, carloads of grain, food, lumber, paper, scrap metal and several other categories were higher in April 2021 than they were in both April 2020 and in April 2019. Carloads of chemicals and steel in April 2021 were much higher than last year and just shy of April 2019 levels.”
Combined U.S. carload and intermodal originations in April were 2,125,792, up 29.1 percent, or 478,818 carloads and intermodal units compared with April 2020,
Seventeen of the 20 carload commodity categories tracked by the AAR each month saw carload gains compared with April 2020.
These included coal, up 55,929 carloads or 28.7 percent; motor vehicles and parts, up 38,891 carloads or 465.9 percent; and chemicals, up 17,201 carloads or 14.8 percent.
Declines were seen by crushed stone, sand & gravel, down 823 carloads or 1 percent; primary forest products, down 124 carloads or 2.9 percent; and farm products excluding grain, down 74 carloads or 1.9 percent.
Excluding coal, carloads were up 126,131 carloads, or 21.9 percent, last month versus the same month in 2020. Excluding coal and grain, carloads were up 109,124 carloads, or 22.4 percent.
Total U.S. carload traffic for the first four months of 2021 was 3,862,937 carloads, up 2.8 percent, or 104,793 carloads, from the same period last year; and 4,793,498 intermodal units, up 17.6 percent, or 718,271 containers and trailers.
Tags: AAR freight statistics, Association of American Railroads, railroad freight volume, U.S. freight volume, U.S. railroad freight traffic
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