U.S. carload and intermodal weekly volumes see annual declines, reports AAR

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported this week that rail carload and intermodal volumes for the week ending October 24 were both down.

Carloads decreased 7.4 percent to 284,523 and were ahead of the week ending October 17 at 279,547 and the week ending October 10 at 281,073.

For the ten carload commodity groups tracked by the AAR, it said that three saw annual gains, with grain up 13 percent to 25,301 carloads, motor vehicles and parts up 9.9 percent to 18,984, and miscellaneous carloads up 2.6 percent to 8,972.

Petroleum and petroleum products were down 21.7 percent to 13,273, and metallic ores and minerals dropped 18.5 percent to 21,759.

Intermodal containers and trailers saw a 3.7 percent annual decrease to 268,621 containers and trailers, for its first decline since the week of September 16. And this tally trailed the weeks ending October 17 and October 10, which came in at 275,149 and 275,160, respectively.

Through the first 42 weeks of 2015, AAR said that U.S. carloads are down 4.5 percent annually at 11,725,829 and intermodal units are up 2.2 percent at 11,236,197.