The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported Wednesday that carload traffic in October totaled 1,124,470 carloads, down 6.9 percent or 83,578 carloads from October 2014.
US railroads also originated 1,089,310 containers and trailers in October 2015, down 1.4 percent or 15,769 units from the same month last year. For October 2015, combined
US carload and intermodal originations were 2,213,780, down 4.3 percent or 99,347 carloads and intermodal units from October 2014.
In October 2015, five of the 20 carload commodity categories tracked by the AAR each month saw carload gains compared with October 2014. This included: grain, up 12.9 percent or 11,366 carloads; miscellaneous carloads, up 27.3 percent or 5,293 carloads; and motor vehicles and parts, up 6.7 percent or 4,654 carloads. Commodities that saw declines in October 2015 from October 2014 included: coal, down 13.3 percent or 59,791 carloads; petroleum and petroleum products, down 18.6 percent or 12,209 carloads; and metallic ores, down 27.9 percent or 9,029 carloads.
Excluding coal, carloads were down 3.1 percent or 23,787 carloads in October 2015 from October 2014.
Total
US carload traffic for the first ten months of 2015 was 12,005,156 carloads, down 4.6 percent or 579,405 carloads, while intermodal containers and trailers were 11,506,577 units, up 2.1 percent or 234,100 containers and trailers when compared to the same period in 2014. For the first ten months of 2015, total rail traffic volume in the United States was 23,511,733 carloads and intermodal units, down 1.4 percent or 345,305 carloads and intermodal units from the same point last year.
"The decline in rail traffic in October is consistent with the view that a divide has opened up between the service sector, which appears to be fairly robust in many respects, and manufacturing, which appears to be facing increasingly strong headwinds, including international turmoil and slowdowns in the energy sector," said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray.