North American rail traffic up 1.5% for the week ending December 14

The Association of American Railroads or AAR, reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending December 14. Due to the upcoming holidays, the Weekly Rail Traffic reports for the weeks ending December 21, and December 28, will be released on December 27 and January 3 respectively. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 526,166 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.8% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending December 14 were 228,400 carloads, down 2.4% compared with the same week in 2023, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 297,766 containers and trailers, up 11.1% compared to 2023. Six of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2023. They included farm products excl. grain, and food, up 599 carloads, to 17,143; nonmetallic minerals, up 596 carloads, to 29,740; and chemicals, up 374 carloads, to 32,862. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2023 included coal, down 3,899 carloads, to 61,291; metallic ores and metals, down 2,444 carloads, to 18,770; and motor vehicles and parts, down 785 carloads, to 16,00. North American rail volume for the week ending December 14 on 9 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 334,768 carloads, down 4% compared with the same week last year, and 379,155 intermodal units, up 7% compared with last year. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 713,923 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.5%. North American rail volume for the first 50 weeks of 2024 was 33,629,011 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), Wabtec (WAB),Trinity Industries (TRN),Greenbrier (GBX), FreightCar America (RAIL), and Rail Vision (RVSN), GATX (GATX).