AAR reports annual carload and intermodal gains for week ending March 18

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported this week that United States rail carload and intermodal volumes both saw annual gains for the week ending March 18.

Carloads rose 4.6 percent to 246,465, which trailed the week ending March 11 at 253,664 and the week ending March 4 at 262,743.

Five of the ten carload commodity groups tracked by the AAR posted annual gains, including: coal, up 18.9 percent to 77,123 carloads; grain, up 8.1 percent to 23,243 carloads; and nonmetallic minerals, up 3.3 percent to 33,255 carloads. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2016 included motor vehicles and parts, down 13.8 percent to 16,621 carloads; petroleum and petroleum products, down 9.3 percent to 9,655 carloads; and miscellaneous carloads, down 5.9 percent to 9,237 carloads.

Intermodal containers and trailers saw a slight 0.3 percent annual increase to 248,816, which was below the week ending March 11 at 256,974 and the week ending March 4 at 258,864.

On a year-to-date basis for the first 11 weeks of 2017, U.S. carloads were up 4.9 percent compared to the same timeframe a year ago at 2,803,485 and intermodal containers and trailers up off 0.2 percent at 2,854,161.