Rail traffic continues to show a modest expansion according to the latest readings from the American Association of Railroads. The latest reading showed a year over year change of 3.4% in intermodal traffic which brought the 12 week moving average up to 3.1%. This is the highest reading since May of this year.
AAR has more details:
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported mixed weekly rail traffic for the week ending September 21, 2013 with total U.S. weekly carloads of 288,160 carloads, down 1.5 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 262,897 units, up 3.4 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. rail traffic for the week was 551,057 combined carloads and intermodal units, up 0.8 percent compared with the same week last year.
Six of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, led by petroleum and petroleum products, with 12,767 carloads or 8.0 percent. Commodities showing a decrease compared with the same week last year included grain, with 15,684 carloads, down 21.3 percent.
For the first 38 weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 10,643,729 carloads, down 1.0 percent from the same point last year, and 9,277,911 intermodal units, up 3.7 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first 38 weeks of 2013 was 19,921,640 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.1 percent from last year.”
Chart via Orcam Research:
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.