Rail Week Ending February 6, 2016: Contraction Continues But Short Term Improvement Continues

Week 5 of 2016 shows same week total rail traffic (from same week one year ago) only marginally declined according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) traffic data. Intermodal traffic continued to improve year-over-year, which accounts for approximately half of movements but the weekly railcar counts remained in contraction.

This analysis is looking for clues in the rail data to show the direction of economic activity – and is not necessarily looking for clues of profitability of the railroads. The weekly data is fairly noisy, and the best way to view it is to look at the rolling averages (carloads and intermodal combined).

  Percent current rolling average is larger than the rolling average of one year ago Current quantities accelerating or decelerating Current rolling average accelerating or decelerating compared to the rolling average one year ago 4 week rolling average -6.7 % accelerating accelerating 13 week rolling average -8.8 % decelerating accelerating 52 week rolling average -3.5 % decelerating decelerating

A summary of the data from the AAR:

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Feb. 6, 2016.

For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 504,510 carloads and intermodal units, down 1.4 percent compared with the same week last year.

Total carloads for the week ending Feb. 6 were 241,680 carloads, down 11.7 percent compared with the same week in 2015, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 262,830 containers and trailers, up 10.5 percent compared to 2015.

Four of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2015. They included motor vehicles and parts, up 24.6 percent to 19,216 carloads; miscellaneous carloads, up 20.4 percent to 8,904 carloads; and grain, up 5 percent to 22,257 carloads. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2015 included coal, down 30.3 percent to 73,298 carloads; petroleum and petroleum products, down 16.8 percent to 11,980 carloads; and metallic ores and metals, down 8.7 percent to 18,737 carloads.

For the first 5 weeks of 2016, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 1,209,722 carloads, down 15.7 percent from the same point last year; and 1,302,451 intermodal units, up 4.8 percent from last year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 5 weeks of 2016 was 2,512,173 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 6.2 percent compared to last year.