Rail Intermodal Volume Still Lagging

Rail intermodal volume registered a gain during the week ended Oct. 12 in comparison with the previous week, but was still down sharply from the corresponding week last year, as West Coast ports reopened late last week
. The Assn. of American Railroads said intermodal volume totaled 151,826 trailers and containers, up 13% from the previous week, but down 18.5% from the comparable week last year. Container volume dropped 25.3% from last year, while trailer loadings declined by 1%.
Carload freight, which doesn?t include the intermodal data, was off by 0.4% percent from last year, totaling 345,074 cars. Carload volume was up 0.4 in the East but down 1.1% in the West. Total volume was estimated at 29.8 billion ton-miles, down 0.3% from the 41st week of 2001.
The AAR also reported the following cumulative totals for U.S. railroads during the first 41 weeks of 2002: 13,521,882 carloads, down 1% from last year; intermodal volume of 7,315,487 trailers and containers, up 3.8%; and total volume of an estimated 1.173 trillion ton-miles, up 0.9% from last year's first 41 weeks.