WASHINGTON—The Association of American Railroads (AAR) said today that carload freight volumes and intermodal traffic volumes were down sharply on United States railroads for the week ending May 9 compared to the same week last year.
Weekly carload freight, which does not include intermodal data, came in at 249,576 cars, down 25.8 percent from the same timeframe last year, said the AAR. And carload freight loadings were down 21.4 percent in the West and 31.7 percent in the East.
Intermodal loadings, which are not included in carload data, totaled 181,662 trailers or containers, down 21.0 percent compared to the same timeframe a year ago. Trailer volume was down 37.9 percent, and container volume decreased 16.4 percent.
Weekly railroad volume was estimated at 26.4 billion ton-miles by the AAR which was down 25.2 percent from a year ago.
And for the first 18 weeks of 2009, the AAR said U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 4,789,321 carloads, which is down 18.8 percent from the first 18 weeks of 2008. Trailers or containers at 3,343,134 were down 16.5 percent, and total volume at an estimated 508.4 billion ton-miles was off by 17.7 percent year-over-year.
Of the 19 commodity groups tracked by the AAR, none were up year-over-year. Lumber & wood products were off by 43.3 percent, and motor vehicles and equipment were down 49.5 percent.
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