Rail, Intermodal Fall for Week
Rail carload and intermodal traffic fell for week ended Saturday compared with a year ago, the Association of American Railroads said.
Intermodal traffic fell 8.3% to 210,123 trailers and containers, AAR said. Container volume fell 8.5% to 163,667 units, while trailers declined 7.8% to 46,456 units.
Overall rail carload traffic fell 2.3% to 313,037 carloads, the group said in its weekly report Thursday.
Railroad volume is considered an important economic indicator. Intermodal traffic, which tends to be higher-valued merchandise than bulk commodities, uses trains for the long haul and trucks for the shorter distance at either end of the trip.