“So it’s not quite as bad as the index numbers suggest.”
Not really...
U.S. Railcar loadings are basically flat vs. last year, only up by 1.1%.
The increase is being driven by FRACKING SAND, which has driven dry car rates through the roof up 12.8%, and rail transport of Petroleum Products (Think Warren Buffets XL Pipeline Cancellation payoff) up 24%
Anecdotal reports by my son, a Utah RR engineer, backs that up. There was talks of layoff when one of their customers had generator problems and didn't need as much coal, The savvy salesmen on the RR lined up some fracking sand cutomers and saved the day. My boy says there's lots of traffic for that stuff.