U.S. rail freight traffic down at start of year
Freight traffic on U.S. railroads reached 29 billion ton-miles in the first week of 2007, down 6.1 percent compared to the same week in 2006, the Association of American Railroads reported.
Carload freight totaled 286,752 cars, down 7.2 percent from 2006, with loadings down 9.2 percent in the East and 5.7 percent in the West. Intermodal volume of 188,585 trailers or containers was off 1.8 percent from last year, the AAR said.
Canadian railroads reported volume of 69,753 cars, down 0.4 percent from last year, and 32,464 trailers or containers, off 7.3 percent.
Combined volume for the first week of 2007 on 13 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads totaled 356,505 carloads, down 6 percent from 2006, and 221,049 trailers and containers, down 2.6 percent from last year.