Industry Indicators - railroads: traffic, commodities, orders - Brief Article - Illustration

Railway Age, Nov, 2001

Industry Indicators

TRAFFIC ORIGINATED

CARLOADS

WEEK 41 ENDING OCTOBER 13, 2001

MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

By commodity                        2001     2000  % Change

Agricultural products             45,572   45,157      0.9%
Chemicals                         33,450   34,411     -2.8%
Coal                             139,341  133,618      4.3%
Forest products                   18,509   19,397     -4.6%
Metallic ores & min.              29,929   31,100     -3.8%
Motor veh. & equip.               25,124   27,262     -7.8%
Nonmetallic min. & prod.          40,406   41,035     -1.5%
Other carloads                    14,242   14,309     -0.5%
Total cars loaded                346,573  346,289      0.1%

CANADIAN RAILROADS

By commodity                        2001     2000  % Change

Agricultural products             15,408   16,168     -4.7%
Chemicals                         11,641   13,905    -16.3%
Coal                               9,194    8,976      2.4%
Forest products                    8,658    8,832     -2.0%
Metallic ores and min.             3,006    3,286     -8.5%
Motor veh. & equip.                7,458    7,924     -5.9%
Nonmetallic min. & prod.           3,489    3,388      3.0%
Other carloads                     1,594    1,634     -2.4%
Total cars loaded                 60,448   64,113     -5.7%

U.S./Canadian total              407,021  410,402     -0.8%

U.S. TOTAL 41 weeks: 13,648,698 * % change from 2000: -1.3%
CANADIAN TOTAL 41 weeks: 2,528,087 * % change from 2000: -2.0%
U.S./CANADIAN TOTAL 41 weeks: 16,176,785 * % change from 2000: -1.4%

MEXICO (TFM reporting)

TOTAL 41 weeks: 5,547* % change from 2000:  n/a

By commodity                        2001     2000  % Change

INTERMODAL UNITS

WEEK 41 ENDING OCTOBER 13, 2001

U.S. TRAFFIC

Trailers                          52,027   59,544    -12.6%
Containers                       134,375  133,354      0.8%
Total units                      186,402  192,908     -3.4%

CANADIAN TRAFFIC

Trailers                           3,805    4,329    -12.1%
Containers                        30,400   30,270      0.4%
Total units                       34,205   34,599     -1.1%

U.S./Canadian total              220,607  227,507     -3.0%

U.S. TOTAL 41 weeks: 7,047,983 * % change from 2000: -2.8%
CANADIAN TOTAL 41 weeks: 1,438,960 * % change from 2000: 2.0%
U.S./CANADIAN TOTAL 41 weeks: 8,486,943 * % change from 2000: -2.0%

By commodity                        2001     2000  % Change

MEXICO (TFM reporting)

Trailers                               0      n/a       n/a
Containers                         1,538      n/a       n/a
Total units                        1,538      n/a       n/a

Estimated ton-miles (billions),

U.S. Class I railroads

By commodity                        2001     2000  % Change

                                    30.8     30.6      0.7%

Totals 2001 2001: 1,167.5 * 2000: 1,1600.3 * % change: 0.6%

Source: "Weekly Railroad Traffic," Association of American Railroads

Freight cars, new (all owners)

Delivered

7,175 (3rd Quarter 2001)

11,982 (2nd Quarter 2001)

11,070 (1st Quarter 2001)

11,993 (4th Quarter 2000)

12,782 (3rd Quarter 2000)

Ordered

4,685 (3rd Quarter 2001)

3,482 (2nd Quarter 2001)

8,413 (1st Quarter 2001)

8,478 (4th Quarter 2000)

11,211 (3rd Quarter 2000)

Backloged

11,883 (3rd Quarter 2001)

14,482 (2nd Quarter 2001)

19,991 (1st Quarter 2001)

22,648 (4th Quarter 2000)

26,218 (3rd Quarter 2000)

Twelve-month year-end comparison

      Orders  Deliveries

2000  45,835    55,821
1999  41,420    74,589
1998  86,985    75,704

Note: Figures that do not track reflect revisions to a prior quarter
made subsequent to that quarter's reporting.

Source: American Railway Car Institute

Note: Table made from bar graph

[Graph omitted]