Freight Rail Traffic Hit 20-Year Lows in 2009
From Warren Buffett’s acquisition of BNSF to the Obama administration’s high-speed rail initiative, the nation is abuzz with talk about a revival of freight trains as an energy-efficient alternative to trucks.
(Photo: TSA)But amid the positive forecasts for freight, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) released data today that showed just how bad of a year 2009 was for the industry.
Total carload traffic on U.S. railroads sank by 16.1 percent between 2008 and 2009, hitting lows not seen since 1988, according to the AAR.
Traffic levels for last month were 4.1 percent lower than those of December 2008 and 17.6 percent lower than the last month of 2007 — interestingly, the AAR found that decline driven by less coal movement. Excluding coal shipments, rail traffic actually rose by nearly 7 percent between December 2008 and December 2009.
In a statement accompanying the data, John Gray, AAR senior vice president for policy, chalked up freight’s struggles to the recession. “We’re hopeful that 2010 will be a much better year for
the economy and for railroads.”
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