Total U.S. weekly traffic down 5.3%

Railway Age reports:

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reports for the week ending August 13, 2016, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 534,533 carloads and intermodal units, down 5.3% compared with the same week last year.

Total carloads for the week ending August 13 were 267,589 carloads, down 7.1% compared with the same week in 2015, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 266,944 containers and trailers, down 3.4% compared to 2015.

Three of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2015. They were grain, up 27.6% to 25,232 carloads; chemicals, up 4.3% to 30,447 carloads; and miscellaneous carloads, up 0.5% to 9,999 carloads. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2015 included petroleum and petroleum products, down 25.2% to 10,484 carloads; coal, down 16.4% to 88,905 carloads; and forest products, down 7.5% to 10,281 carloads.

For the first 32 weeks of 2016, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 7,856,178 carloads, down 11.6% from the same point last year; and 8,245,937 intermodal units, down 2.8% from last year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 32 weeks of 2016 was 16,102,115 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 7.3% compared to last year.

The trend.