Rail traffic in October increased in most categories compared to last year, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
Last month, nearly1.1 million containers and trailers originated from U.S. railroads, 6.4 percent more than 2016. Combined carload and intermodal originations increased 3.1 percent to more than 2.2 million containers and trailers.
Of the 20 carload commodity categories, 12 saw growth. The category with the largest increase was crushed stone, sand, and gravel, jumping 16.5 percent.
Carloads, excluding coal and grain, grew 4.8 percent to 29,072. Carloads for the first 10 months of the year also were up, growing 3.4 percent to 11.2 million loads, as was traffic, increasing 3.6 percent.
“Year-over-year U.S. rail carloads in October were held back by declines in carloads of grain and coal,” AAR Senior Vice President John Gray said. “However, carloads of these commodities tend to rise or fall for reasons that have little to do with the state of the economy. Excluding them, carloads were up 4.8 percent in October, their best monthly gain in almost three years. As such, rail carloads, as well as record intermodal volume in October, support the view that the economy is doing somewhat better now than it has been in the past two years.”