Rail Traffic Dips at End of October

New loadings of bulk railcar traffic declined mildly in the final week of October at major U.S. railroads, while a falloff in container traffic more than offset increased rail hauls of intermodal trailers.

The Association of American Railroads said the U.S. operations of all seven Class I carriers, plus a few regional rail firms that report to AAR, originated 275,439 bulk railcar loads in the week ending Oct. 31, down from 276,357 in the previous week.

Intermodal loadings fell to 203,860 units from 207,401 a week earlier, and were the lowest since the period including the Labor Day holiday.

The slide came from rail hauls of intermodal containers, in line with the end of the autumn peak shipping season for imported ocean containers arriving at seaports with goods from Asia and then entering the U.S. rail market.

Yet trailer loadings climbed last week to 33,147 units from 31,553 in the Oct. 24 week. Trailers are all domestic moves, while intermodal container traffic is split between domestic and international business. The firmness in trailer numbers is in keeping with other signs that the domestic intermodal market continues to strengthen moderately.

The carload figures show another sizable drop in rail loadings of coal, which is the largest traffic category for major railroads. AAR’s reporting firms loaded 123,831 coal cars last week, down from 127,549 a week before.

However, chemical loadings – the second-largest category and one closely tied to factory demand – rose to 28,032 units from 26,851. Other gainers included motor vehicles, scrap materials, construction stone and gravel, and metal products.

Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.