North American rail traffic up 5.6% for the week ending August 17

The Association of American Railroads or AAR, reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending August 17. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 516,819 carloads and intermodal units, up 8% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending August 17 were 231,081 carloads, up 1% compared with the same week in 2023, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 285,738 containers and trailers, up 14.3% compared to 2023. Eight of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2023. They included grain, up 5,861 carloads, to 21,651; chemicals, up 2,008 carloads, to 33,599; and petroleum and petroleum products, up 1,849 carloads, to 11,267. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2023 were coal, down 7,409 carloads, to 62,194; and nonmetallic minerals, down 2,110 carloads, to 31,897. North American rail volume for the week ending August 17 on 10 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 333,194 carloads, down 0.2% compared with the same week last year, and 367,264 intermodal units, up 11.6% compared with last year. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 700,458 carloads and intermodal units, up 5.6% . North American rail volume for the first 33 weeks of 2024 was 21,843,479 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.4% compared with 2023. Publicly traded companies in the space include CSX (CSX), Canadian National (CNI), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP), Norfolk Southern (NSC) , Union Pacific (UNP), Trinity Industries (TRN), Greenbrier (GBX), FreightCar America (RAIL), L.B. Foster (FSTR), Wabtec (WAB) and GATX (GATX).