Industry News

U.S. Rail Freight Volume Up From Year Ago

December 1, 2008 | 11:25 a.m. CST

Freight volume on U.S. railroads was up during the week ended Nov. 22 compared to the corresponding week a year ago, reports the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

AAR cautioned, however, that comparisons between the two weeks are distorted by the fact that the year ago week included the Thanksgiving holiday.

Carload freight for the 47th week of 2008 totaled 309,109 cars, up 6.6 percent from last year, with volume up 10.2 percent in the East and 4.4 percent in the West. Intermodal volume, which is not included in the carload data, totaled 220,314 trailers or containers, up 15.1 percent from last year. Container volume was up 15.4 percent while trailer traffic gained 13.9 percent. Total volume was estimated at 32.9 billion ton-miles, up 7.5 percent from the 47th week last year.

Cumulative volume for the first 47 weeks of 2008 totaled 15,249,068 carloads, down 0.8 percent from 2007; 10,596,451 trailers or containers, down 2.9 percent; and total volume of an estimated 1.59 trillion ton-miles, up 0.3 percent from last year.