From the Association of American Railroads: Rail Time Indicators. The AAR reports traffic in January 2010 was down 0.7% compared to January 2009.



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This graph shows U.S. average weekly rail carloads. It is important to note that excluding coal, traffic is up 11.3% from January 2009, and traffic increased in 13 of the 19 major commodity categories.



Housing: In addition to the decline in coal, two key building materials were also down YoY from January 2009: Forest products (off 27.0%) and Nonmetallic minerals & prod. (crushed stone, gravel, sand was off 16.6%). This fits with the recent data on housing starts, new home sales, and the NAHB home builder index that shows residential investment is flat and non-residential investment is declining sharply.



From AAR:

• U.S. freight railroads originated 1,056,684 carloads in January 2010, an average of 264,171 carloads per week — down 0.7% from January 2009 (265,983 average) and down 17.7% from January 2008’s 321,040 average.



• Carloads excluding coal were up 11.3% (58,467 carloads) in January 2010 from January 2009, though they were still down 19.9% from January 2008.



• In January 2010, 13 of the 19 major commodity categories tracked by the AAR saw carload gains compared with January 2009. Carloads of chemicals were up 13.2% from last year, while carloads of primary metal products (predominantly steel) were up 28.0%.



• The biggest carload percentage gain in January 2010 went to motor vehicles and parts, carloads of which were up 65.7% in January 2010 from January 2009’s severely depressed level.

emphasis added