Ton-miles up a fraction in first half - railroad traffic - Brief Article

Railway Age, August, 2001

The Association of American Railroads estimates that total freight volume for U.S. railroads in this year's first half was 727.3 billion ton-miles, up 0.5% from last year.

Measured in terms of carloads, traffic this year was down 0.9%. While most commodity traffic trailed 2000 levels, coal loadings were up 7.7%, accounting for the increase in ton-miles.

Intermodal volume in this year's first half ran 3% below last year's levels, reversing a trend of many years when trailer/container traffic was the pace-setter.

The decline worsened slightly toward the end of the half, with carload traffic down 1.1% and intermodal traffic down 3.2% in June this year compared with June a year ago.