Posted on 05/15/2020 7:26:25 PM PDT by buckalfa
U.S. freight-rail traffic plunged 22.1 percent to 412,549 carloads and intermodal units during the week ending May 9 compared with the same week a year ago, Association of American Railroads (AAR) data shows.
Railroads logged 185,144 carloads, down 28.4 percent, and 227,405 containers and trailers, down 16 percent. None of the 10 carload commodity groups that AAR tracks on a weekly basis posted increases.
Among the commodity group decreases posted during the week, coal was down 34,111 carloads to 46,515; motor vehicles and parts were down 14,876 carloads to 2,108; and metallic ores and metals were down 7,513 carloads to 13,624.
Last week was similar to recent weeks in that the vast majority of rail traffic categories logged large year-over-year volume declines, said AAR Senior Vice President John Gray in a press release.
"As in the prior two weeks, autos, coal and steel saw especially big declines in the last week," Gray said. "In terms of total carloads, last week was the second lowest since our data began in 1988."
Railroads have experience weathering difficult times and will get through this one, he said.
"That said, they're hopeful that the efforts now underway to find effective ways to combat the pandemic will bear fruit and our economy can first recover and then return to growth mode," Gray added.
Meanwhile, Canadian railroads logged 67,481 carloads for the week, down 21.1 percent, and 69,234 intermodal units, down 0.9 percent. Mexican railroads posted 14,022 carloads during the week, down 36.1 percent, and 13,187 intermodal containers and trailers, down 29.8 percent.
For the first 19 weeks of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019: • U.S. railroads reported 8,659,843 carloads and intermodal units, down 11.9 percent; • Canadian railroads reported 2,669,073 carloads and intermodal units, down 6.2 percent; • Mexican railroads reported 649,270 carloads and intermodal units, down 6.7 percent; and • North American railroads logged 11,978,186 carloads and intermodal units, down 10.4 percent
Hopefully they’ll get back on track soon.
Yeah, live by a coal train railroad.
Frequency is back to Obama-era levels.
About a fourth of what Trump got it up to.
In the grand scheme of things, the lives of all of us have been markedly altered by a virus that very likely came from a laboratory in Wuhan that received US grant funding. Millions of lives altered by the decisions of a few people. Given the lack of transparent data out of China, it was entirely appropriate for us to assume the worst regarding the infectivity and lethality or this virus. That said, it no longer is. It's a bad virus, but not the worst, and we need to take back our lives.
I occasionally try to sell bulky and/or heavy objects.
Hard to get a decent price or even make the sale at all due to shipping being so high.
What really slays me is the “Fuel Surcharge” which remains even when fuel prices drop to historic lows.
Like “Temporary” Gov. taxes, no such thing.
When shipping cost more than the goods, few goods will be shipped.
Shipping needs less union activity and more competitive pricing.
If anyone is interested in a little more detail: https://www.aar.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2020-05-13-railtraffic.pdf
Automobile delivery by rail is down 32% for the year. Good time to buy a car?
Many chemicals are needed as a feedstock for industrial processes. If factories are shutdown much of the chemical industry is shutdown. Even things like milk, sugar, and flour are shipped by rail to large factories.
Not sure it’s a “Good time” to buy anything.
Not seeing much if anything in the way of bargains.
Most durable goods inventory was produced and stocked before the Kung-Flu hit.
Not much recent production with everyone locked up at home.
What is in stock now may be all that is available for the foreseeable future.
So despite the crashed economy it seems there is little incentive for lower prices.
Scarcity drives higher prices.
I was born and raised in a mountain coal town that used to have one of the biggest rail yards on the East Coast (Western Maryland - Cumberland, specifically). Rail has been declining for years. The yard was usually full of cars (a lot of B&O, C&O, and Chessie interests in the region), and it slowly whithered. Department closures, shops cutting back, furloughs. In fact, just two years ago this May, they laid off a hundred workers from the locomotive repair shop after their jobs were eliminated. They said the shop manager called then aside as they came in, directed them into a meeting room, and were told their jobs were gone. They got escorted to their lockers by security like common criminals, packed their belongings, and were escorted back out the gate. None of it has to do with COVID-19, Obama, Trump, or anything else. The industry has just been shrinking for a long time.
We need to keep our railroads strong. If we are going to bring manufacturing of critical goods back to our country, we need a good transportation system.
All true but...
Obama cracked down on coal regs at the very time gas was cheaper.
Should have ‘cushioned’ the blow to coal- that’e the fed’s role -but did the opposite: they exacerbated it.
Things change, but they can change gradually.
My point exactly, if in inverse. It’s been a slow, long-term decline, almost like it was encased in amber at times, but the likes of Obama caused very painful and obvious damage at a time when they needed help. The coal mining industry was vibrant there once (I can remember what seemed like miles of coal cars slowly rolling through town on a single train), but once the EPA started mandating clean coal, a lot of mines went out of business. Other industries suffered, as well. Last year, the Westvaco paper plant had to close down, and it was a hammer blow to one of the most economically-depressed regions in America. Been that way for decades now. The steel industry is shot to hell, and we were a major artery for Pittsburgh to utilize, being two hours away. Businesses in every sector are finding faster, cheaper ways of moving goods and commodities. As much as I hate to say it, I don’t see a time when rail is going to see a post-WW II style boom again, even if we had a white-hot economy. Too many other mitigating factors in 21st Century America now. And I’ve always been pro-rail (although I may be a little culturally biased there).
Rail traffic is a good indicator of how the economy is doing.
Yep
Well, obviously, rail transport has an advantage (in it’s cheapness) to road transport in the contagion.
Overall though not so much.
Rail is cheap for bulk. There’s a permanent advantage there.
The value of it may ebb or wane at times.
Sometimes you want something fast, sometimes you want it cheap.
Lowe’s parking lot full store busy for months here, but no price drops (yet) to meet current margins. May not change, if the trillion free dollars to state and local govt gets through
Hertz rental car company is going bankrupt, and a lot of rental companies are not doing much better. There will be a flood of used cars available later this year.
Yeah, I try to get my poor friends with their covid checks to consider that.
But the market looks awful. good now to them.
Another big loss for Warren Buffett?
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