The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has reported that total U.S. rail traffic for November 2016 was 2,638,197 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.1 percent or 29,735 carloads and intermodal units compared with November 2015.
November 2016 U.S. carload originations totaled 1,319,008, an increase of 0.4 percent, or 5,406 carloads, compared to November of last year. Excluding coal, carloads for the month were up 1.7 percent or 14,688 carloads compared to November 2015.
Intermodal traffic for November totaled 1,319,189 containers and trailers, up 24,329 units, or 1.9 percent, compared to last November.
Eleven of the 20 commodity categories tracked by the AAR each month saw increases last month compared with November of 2015. Commodities showing the largest increases included grain, up 18.6 percent, or 20,209 carloads; crushed stone, gravel and sand, up 2.5 percent, or 2,714 carloads; and chemicals, up 1.9 percent, or 2,829 carloads.
Petroleum and petroleum products showed the largest decrease in the commodity groups, with a drop of 15.4 percent, or 9,813 carloads, and motor vehicles and parts declined 3.5 percent, or 3,134 carloads. Coal was down 2 percent, or 9,282 carloads.
AAR Senior Vice President of Policy and Economics John T. Gray remarked, “There are glimmers of hope in rail traffic data in November, with carloads and intermodal totals both up over last year — something that hasn't happened for carloads in 22 months and for intermodal in nine months.”
“Hopefully, these results are indicators of continuing future growth for the manufacturing economy, for trade, and for rail traffic. It appears that economic fundamentals are trending toward more positive results than have been seen in the recent past,” added Gray.
For the week ending December 3, 2016, an increase of 2 percent was reported in total U.S. rail traffic compared with the same week in 2015. Carloads and intermodal units totaled 53,130.
For the week, there were 274,329 carloads, an increase of 0.9 percent compared with the same week in 2015, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 278,801 containers and trailers, up 3.2 percent compared to 2015.
Seven of the 10 carload commodity groups that are tracked by the AAR posted increases compared with the same week in 2015. Grain had the highest increase, up 8.5 percent, with a total 25,002 carloads.
Petroleum and petroleum products reported the largest decrease for the week compared to the same time period in 2015, with a total of 11,504, a drop of 15.3 percent.
On the 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads, combined North American rail volume for the week ending December 3, 2016, was 721,875 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.6 percent.
For the first 48 weeks of 2016, total U.S. rail traffic was 24,601,839 carloads and intermodal units, down 5.8 percent, or 1,517,685 carloads and intermodal units from the same time period in 2015. U.S. carloads totaled 12,123,218, a drop of 9 percent. Intermodal containers and trailers totaled 12,478,621 units, down 2.5 percent compared with the same period in 2015.
North American rail volume for the first 48 weeks of 2016 totaled 32,227,999, down 5.3 percent compared with 2015.