The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has reported that U.S. rail traffic for the week ending December 10, 2016, totaled 538,932 carloads and intermodal units, a 1.1 percent decrease compared to the same week in 2015.
U.S. carloads, which totaled 259,058 for the week, were down by 4.3 percent compared to the same week last year. U.S. intermodal volume for the week totaled 279,874 units, an increase of 2.1 percent compared to 2015.
Only one of the 10 carload commodity groups that are tracked by the AAR posted an increase for the week ending December 10, 2016, when compared with the same week in 2015. Grain was up by 8.4 percent to 24,618 carloads.
Petroleum and petroleum products showed the largest decrease in the commodity groups, with a drop of 25.3 percent to 10,026 carloads. Miscellaneous carloads declined by 13.1 percent to 9,350 carloads, and coal dropped 5.4 percent to 87,929 carloads.
For the first 49 weeks of 2016, U.S. rail volume totaled 25,140,771 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 5.7 percent when compared to last year. Carloads, with a total of 12,382,276, were down by 8.9 percent, and intermodal, with a total of 12,758,495, dropped by 2.4 percent.
On the 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads, combined North American rail volume for the week ending December 10, 2016, was 699,617 carloads and intermodal units, down 0.3 percent.
For the first 49 weeks of 2016, North American rail volume was down 5.2 percent, with a total of 32,927,616 carloads and intermodal units.