Rail Carloads Up

Rail carloadings were up 3.3% during the second week of July compared with the prior-year period. But intermodal volume dropped by 2.8% in the same period.

Year-to-date figures for the 28 weeks showed 9 million carloads, a 0.4% increase over the 2007 period. Intermodal loads were down 3.1% at 6.2 million.

Floods in the US Midwest slowed train speeds and impaired terminal dwell time in recent weeks.

Excluding intermodal freight, CSX report a drop of 0.3% in carloads, Norfolk Southern lost 0.2%, Burlington Northern-Santa Fe increased carloads 0.7% and Union Pacific showed an 8.3% rise. In the same period (week 28), CSX saw its intermodal traffic drop 1.8%. At the same time, Norfolk Southern gained 1.6% in intermodal, Burlington Northern-Santa Fe lost 5.8%, Union Pacific dropped 9.8% and both Canadian railroads increased intermodal, the Canadian National by 6.3% and Canadian Pacific by 1.4%.

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