Introduction
Every week I include the AAR’s rail carloads statistics as part of my “Weekly High Frequency Indicators.” Typically these have moved in tandem with trucking, but have the advantage that trucking statistics are only reported monthly and with a delay.
Recently, rail carloads have been tanking. Here’s the most recent AAR chart from last week:
Not only were both intermodal and carloads down sharply for the week compared with one year prior, but they are also down YoY for the entire year of 2019 so far! This is a downright recessionary statistic.
Meanwhile, the