From the AAR:
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 3, 2009 — The Association of American Railroads today reported that rail traffic continues to register incremental gains on a week-to-week basis, but remains down year over year. Rail carloadings were at their highest level since the week ended Dec. 13, 2008. For the week ended Aug. 29, 2009, U.S. railroads reported originating 285,580 cars, down 16.2 percent compared with the same week in 2008. Regionally, carloadings were down 16 percent in the West and 16.6 percent in the East.
Intermodal traffic of 202,553 trailers or containers on U.S. railroads was down 15.6 percent from the same week last year. Container volume fell 9.4 percent and trailer volume dropped 38.7 percent.
All 19 carload freight commodity groups were down from last year, with declines ranging from 8.7 percent for farm products not including grain to 42.1 percent for metals and metal products.
For the first 34 weeks of 2009, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 9,001,221 carloads, down 18.7 percent from 2008; 6,354,064 trailers or containers, down 17.1 percent, and total volume of an estimated 958.1 billion ton-miles, down 17.8 percent.
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.