Rail, Intermodal Traffic Decline for Week
Rail and intermodal traffic declined for the week ended Saturday compared with a year ago, with much of it due to Hurricane Ike, the Association of American Railroads said.
Intermodal traffic plunged 6.2%, led by a 6.1% drop in container traffic to 184,457 units, AAR said. Trailers fell 6.6% to 49, 829 units.
Overall rail traffic fell 7.8% for the week, to 312,662 carloads from a year ago, the group said in its weekly report.
AAR estimated total volume at 32.8 billion ton-miles, down 6.8% from the same week last year.
Railroad volume is considered an important economic indicator. Intermodal traffic, which tends to be higher-valued merchandise than bulk commodities, uses trains for the long haul and trucks for the shorter distance at either end of the trip.
