"But coal and grain loadings slipped, as did rail hauls of various base construction materials, finished motor vehicles and intermediate metal products".
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Intermodal loadings by the major North American railroads slowed last week to the weakest levels since snowstorms rocked the freight system in early to mid-February.
The carriers, which include all of the seven Class I railroads plus some sizable regional lines that report traffic to the Association of American Railroads, originated 243,351 boxed loads in the week ending April 3. That was down from 263,169 in the March 27 week and was the lowest since Feb 6.
For just the largest U.S.-owned railroads, new intermodal shipments fell to 196,257 loads last week from 210,914 a week earlier and were the lowest since Feb. 13.
Rail freight traffic has maintained most of its recent strength, especially in carloads of bulk materials and equipment. Yet carloadings also slowed some for the North American majors, to 372,270 units in the April 3 week from 383,109 in the week ending March 27. The latest carloads are the lowest since Feb. 20.
Real insiders look at that and the Baltic Dry Index to see where the economy is...basically no goods are coming in we're using up our reserves and what we have in warehouses but nothing is coming in to take it's place.
ReplyDeleteThe necessities are disappearing...I swear it's a plot so HUGE that it can't possibly be real...But there are just too many coincidences.
So people (Taps Ruler on desk) we are in the words of Ghandi:
"We is fucked! Now can someone get me a cheeseburger?"
What would really help is an honest chart showing the amount of containers shipped for the past 2 years. This chart would show the real decline in freight traffic in this country, and especially lately because now that freight traffic is down to 196,257 rail cars from 210,914 we can assume that the steady decline is continuing unabated.
ReplyDeleteThat's a decline of 14,657 in one week.
Down 19,818 for all seven major carriers in one week.
At that rate, in 10 weeks practically all freight traffic would disappear.
I live near a major BNSF aterty and have noticed it's not as busy as it has been in the past couple of years. Normally there are two to three loads of coal that come past each day, plus grain cars and your mixed manifest load maybe a few times a week. Lately it seems there are about two loads total per day, so it has really slowed down.
ReplyDeleteI dunno - we live along a rail line, and there doesn't appear to be a slowdown at all. We don't get passenger trains, just freight. And they're rolling through as fast and furious as ever...
ReplyDeleteI live near a freight rail line and traffic is way down. There used to be two to three trains a day and now the trains are down to 1 to 3 per-week.
ReplyDeleteThe Great Depression 2.0 is coming and yet the mainstream media continues to paint a picture of recovery.
ReplyDeleteAll the freight is routed to washington waiting to be redistributed.
ReplyDelete