North American rail traffic down 11.3% for the week ending November 30

The Association of American Railroads or AAR, reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending November 30. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 439,362 carloads and intermodal units, down 13.8% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending November 30 were 189,746 carloads, down 19.9% compared with the same week in 2023, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 249,616 containers and trailers, down 8.5% compared to 2023. One of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2023. It was miscellaneous carloads, up 236 carloads, to 7,833. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2023 included coal, down 16,218 carloads, to 52,126; nonmetallic minerals, down 8,469 carloads, to 20,496; and metallic ores and metals, down 5,821 carloads, to 15,991. North American rail volume for the week ending November 30, on 9 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 292,216 carloads, down 16.1% compared with the same week last year, and 331,822 intermodal units, down 6.6% compared with last year. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 624,038 carloads and intermodal units, down 11.3%. North American rail volume for the first 48 weeks of 2024 was 32,195,699 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.2% compared with 2023. Publicly traded companies in the space include CN (CNI), CSX (CSX), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP), Norfolk Southern (NSC), Union Pacific (UNP), Greenbrier (GBX), FreightCar America (RAIL), L.B. Foster (FSTR), Wabtec (WAB), GATX (GATX) and Rail Vision (RVSN).