AAR reports another week of U.S. rail carload and intermodal gains, for week ending April 24

United States rail carload and intermodal volumes, for the week ending April 24, posted annual gains, according to data issued this week by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

AAR officials have noted in recent weeks that annual comparisons for this week are inflated, due to “the widespread economy-wide shutdowns—and subsequent large reduction in rail volumes—a year ago at this time.

Rail carloads—at 240,075—headed up 25% annually, topping the week ending April 10, at 237,6087, and trailing the week ending April 10, at 295,610.

AAR officials said that all of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2020, including: coal, up 16,126 carloads, to 64,252; motor vehicles and parts, up 9,067 carloads, to 11,302; and chemicals, up 6,759 carloads, to 34,843.

Intermodal containers and trailers—at 298,109—saw a 34.3% annual increase, topping the weeks ending April 17 and April 10, at 233,300 and 280,424, respectively.

For the first 16 weeks of 2021, AAR said that U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,622,079 carloads, up 1.5 percent from the same point last year; and 4,493,689 intermodal units, up 16.8 percent from last year.