Rail Intermodal Traffic Rises to Highest Level on Record in June
AARU.S. rail intermodal traffic rose to the highest level on record in June, the Association of American Railroads reported.
Intermodal volume increased 3.7% last month to 1.117 million as carloads declined 7.7% to 1.087 million, AAR said July 1 in its weekly report.
“Recent declines in rail carload traffic, especially coal, shouldn’t detract from the tremendous improvements we’ve been seeing in intermodal,” John Gray, AAR senior vice president of policy and economics, said in a statement.
“The growth in rail intermodal is one of America’s best transportation-related success stories. June 2015 was the highest-volume rail intermodal month in history for U.S. railroads, and 2015 will almost certainly [break] the record set last year,” Gray said.
Six of the 20 commodity groups AAR tracks each month increased over last year, led by motor vehicles and parts at 4.7%. Coal declined 17.4% year-over-year.
Excluding coal, carloads declined 1.9% in June compared with the same month last year.
Intermodal traffic for the week ended June 27 rose 4.1% to 275,564 compared with the same week last year, according to AAR. The rise follows a 1.6% increase the prior week.
Rail carload volume for the week, which excludes intermodal units, dropped 8.9% year-over-year to 272,405 carloads. The last carload increase was the week of April 18.
Two of the 10 commodity groups AAR tracks increased over last year for the week, grain at 6.1% and motor vehicles and parts at 2.9%. For the week, coal declined 19.2% to 90,654 units.
For the first six months of the year, intermodal traffic increased 2.3% to 6.6 million units from the same period in 2014.
