North American Rail Traffic Fell 1.5% in Week Ended April 27
May 01 2019 - 12:59PM
Dow Jones News
By Colin Kellaher
North American rail volume of carloads and intermodal units fell
1.5% last week, but overall U.S. traffic for the month of April
improved significantly from March, the Association of American
Railroads said Wednesday.
Carload volume for the week ended April 27 on 12 reporting U.S.,
Canadian and Mexican railroads rose 1.3%, while intermodal traffic
fell 4.3%, the trade group said.
North American rail traffic was 1.4% lower in the week ended
April 20. For the first 17 weeks of the year, North American volume
is down 1.2%.
The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 3.3% last week, dragged down
by a 6.7% decline in the volume of weekly intermodal containers and
trailers. Carloads rose 0.4% for the week, as shipments of coal,
the biggest of the 10 carload commodity groups tracked, rose
2.7%.
U.S. rail traffic is down 1.9% for the year to date, the AAR
said.
The group said rail traffic rose 5.1% in Canada last week, with
carloads rising 5.4% and intermodal units up 4.8%.
Rail traffic rebounded in Mexico last week, falling 2.5% after
two weeks of double-digit declines.
For the month of April, the AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell
2.4%, compared with a 5.2% decline in March. Carloads were down
less than 1% for the month, bouncing back from an 8.9% drop in
March, when railroads were hit by severe flooding in the
Midwest.
"It appears that some of the economic uncertainty that was
prevalent earlier in the first quarter has dissipated, although
concerns about trade issues may still be having an impact on rail
volumes," the trade group said. "However, as long as the economy
continues to show life, it's reasonable to think that rail traffic
volumes will continue to improve in the coming months."
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 01, 2019 12:44 ET (16:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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