The recovery in rail traffic continued this week as intermodal rail traffic jumped 10.7% compared to the same week last year. Carloads were up 2.3% and continue to reflect a modest recovery in the economy (via AAR):
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported rail traffic gains for the week ending March 19, 2011, with U.S. railroads originating 293,772 carloads, up 2.3 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week was also up, totaling 222,788 trailers and containers, up 10.7 percent compared with the same week in 2010.Twelve of the 20 carload commodity groups posted increases from the comparable week in 2010. Those groups posting significant increases included: metallic ores, up 93.5 percent; petroleum products, up 12.9 percent; motor vehicles and equipment, up 12.2 percent, and pulp, paper and allied products, up 11.2 percent. The commodity groups reporting a notable drop in weekly traffic were waste and nonferrous scrap, down 14 percent and primary forest products, down 10.1 percent.
Weekly carload volume on Eastern railroads was down 0.5 percent compared with last year. In the West, weekly carload volume was up 4.2 percent compared with the same week in 2010.
For the first 11 weeks of 2011, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,168,141 carloads, up 5.3 percent from last year, and 2,398,885 trailers and containers, up 8.1 percent from the same point in 2010.”
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.
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