Rail carload and intermodal volumes are both down for week ending March 12, says AAR

Both rail carload and intermodal volumes were down for the week ending March 12, according to data issued by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Carloads were down 12.8 percent compared to the same week last year at 243,275, which was below the week ending March 5 at 247,016 and the week ending February 27 at 248,921.

Four of the ten commodities tracked by the AAR were up annually, with miscellaneous carloads up 19.7 percent at 9,448, and motor vehicles and parts up 15.7 percent to 20,104 carloads.

Intermodal containers and trailers were down 10.3 percent annually at 245,902 and were impacted by how volumes last year at this time were higher than usual as the West Coast port labor situation was resolved at that time. This weekly tally was below the weeks ending March 5 and February 27 at 273,019 and 252,463, respectively.

For the first ten weeks of 2016, total carload and intermodal volumes are down 12.9 percent at 2,437,375.