The Association of American Railroads (AAR) now has 20 weeks of rail traffic data for 2022 (ending May 21). Total North American carload and intermodal traffic dipped 3.8% from the same point last year—falling 3.6% in the U.S. and 6.4% in Canada, and rising 3.2% in Mexico.
Construction is under way at MxV Rail’s new railroad testing facility at the PuebloPlex campus in Colorado, which is set to open this fall.
“The Class I railroads recognize that their recent service performance has not met many customers’ expectations,” the Association of American Railroads (AAR) wrote in a May 18 filing to the Surface Transportation Board (STB). But while the STB’s May 5 decision to release updated, more-comprehensive rules for reporting performance and employment metrics “reflects an understandable desire for quick action,” it was “not issued in a vacuum,” AAR pointed out.
U.S. carloads and intermodal units for the week ending May 14, 2022, were each down about 5% from the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads’ figures released May 18. It’s the 12th consecutive week of declines from the prior-year period.
Timothy Strafford has been appointed a Partner for Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s Transportation Practice Group in Washington, D.C. He served most recently as Associate General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
Freight rail traffic dipped yet again in Week 18, compared to the prior-year period, as U.S. carloads fell just below 2% and intermodal dropped close to 5%, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported for the week ending May 7, 2022. Mexican and Canadian volumes fared far better.
Nearly 60 transportation, manufacturing and construction industry groups are calling on U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to “dedicate as much as allowable by law in discretionary grants for FY 2022 to support projects that will facilitate and ease the movement of goods.”
RAILWAY AGE, MAY 2022 ISSUE: Under the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Strategic Research Initiatives (SRI) program, MxV Rail (formerly TTCI) is conducting research to characterize, evaluate and improve the performance of long-travel draft systems. Draft systems protect railcars as coupler forces are transmitted through a train by controlling relative motion between coupled cars and absorbing energy during impacts.
“U.S. rail traffic in April had something for everyone,” Association of American Railroads (AAR) Senior Vice President John T. Gray reported on May 4. “Optimists can point to autos, chemicals and scrap, all of which had solid gains [over the same period last year]. Pessimists can point to grain, intermodal and petroleum products, which saw significant declines.”
Following the Surface Transportation Board’s April 26-27 ““Urgent Issues in Freight Rail Service,” the Association of American Railroads has issued a statement saying that the Class I’s that testified “made clear to the STB and their customers they are committed to delivering the safe and reliable service shippers deserve and expect.”
