I live near an industrial branch of the NS. Until a year or two ago there was single train that went up and back the line every weekday. Now there’s two trains a day, and within the last few weeks/months the trains seem to be getting longer and longer. Apparently business is picking up for the shippers on this line… is this a good indication of activity across the NS system and nation wide? If it is, the future seems bright for the railroads.
It might be so. It also might be that just buisness on the industrial spur is picking up.
I think that overall NS business is doing good. At Princeton Indiana, NS serves a Toyota plant and also brings in coal cars for a power plant. Recently, a second coal track is being installed. The only reason they have for adding a second coal track is for more service, so I do think that NS business is doing better.
Trains News Wire periodically has AAR statistics for carloads shipped and compares it witrh the same period last year.
The American Association of Railroads produces a press release every month on business activity. Here is their latest release covering June 2005:
Rail Freight Traffic Up in June
WASHINGTON, July 7, 2005 — U.S. freight railroad carload traffic rose 0.1 percent (2,245 carloads) while U.S. intermodal traffic rose 4.0 percent (42,134 trailers and containers) in June 2005 compared to June 2004, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported today.
In June 2005, U.S. freight railroads reporting to the AAR originated 1,652,010 carloads (up from 1,649,765 in June 2004) and 1,106,134 intermodal units (up from 1,064,000 in June 2004). For the second quarter of 2005, U.S. rail carloadings of 4,366,293 were 0.9 percent higher (39,098 carloads) than the second quarter of 2004, while intermodal traffic of 2,884,803 units was 4.9 percent higher (134,769 units) than the same period in 2004. For the first six months of 2005, U.S. railroads originated 8,687,334 carloads (up 1.7 percent, or 142,387 carloads) from 2004, and 5,666,057 intermodal units (up 6.2 percent, or 330,978 units) from 2004. Total volume was estimated at 825.4 billion ton-miles, up 2.5 percent from 2004.
In June 2005, 10 of the 19 major commodity categories tracked by the AAR saw carload increases on U.S. railroads, including crushed stone and gravel (up 8.2 percent, or 8,760 carloads) and grain mill products (up 10.0 percent, or 4,307 carloads). Commodities
For the first four or five months of this year, every time the summary of the AAR statistics appeared in the News Wire, the increase for the period over the same period last year was 10%, give or take. More recently, the increase over the same period last year was much less, as in the press release above. That tells me that the level of commerce increased last year, and has been on a plateau or rising very gently since then. Just my two cents worth, I’m not an economist nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn last night.
JOdom,
Thanks for the mid morning chuckle, what can I say but just great!
Business for NS, on the division I work on has picked up, both carload and intermodal are doing great, quite a few new spurs have been put in for new shippers. The high fuel labor costs of the trucking industry are making rail more competive.
The only thing today’s railroads have to fear is prosperity and the investments in physical plant they will have to make to take advantage of it, despite Wall Street’s view that railroads are arachaic technology that will be replaced by cybertech.