Rail traffic continued its steady expansion this week as carloads moved higher by 1.9% and intermodal volume jumped 5.9% versus the same week last year. The AAR elaborates on the data:
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported rail traffic gains for the week ending March 26, 2011, with U.S. railroads originating 299,903 carloads, up 1.9 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week was also up 5.7 percent compared with the same week last year, totaling 223,034 trailers and containers.Eleven of the 20 carload commodity groups posted increases from the comparable week in 2010. Those groups posting significant increases included: pulp, paper and allied products, up 19.4 percent; motor vehicles and equipment, up 12.7 percent; chemicals, up 12.1 percent, and petroleum products, up 12.1 percent. The commodity groups reporting a notable drop in weekly traffic were primary forest products, down 20.6 percent; coke, down 15.4 percent, and waste and nonferrous scrap, down 11.1 percent.
Weekly carload volume on Eastern railroads was down 1.4 percent compared with the same week last year. In the West, weekly carload volume was up 4.2 percent compared with the same week in 2010.
For the first 12 weeks of 2011, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,468,044 carloads, up 5 percent from last year, and 2,621,919 trailers and containers, up 7.9 percent from the same point in 2010.”
Source: AAR
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.