Calculated Risk: AAR: December Rail Carloads down 3.7% YoY, Intermodal Up 12.2% YoY
From the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Rail Time Indicators. Graphs and excerpts reprinted with permission. U.S. rail traffic left something to be desired in 2020 — no surprise, of course, given the pandemic — but traffic finished the year reasonably strong. In December 2020, U.S. rail intermodal volume was up 12.2% over December 2019, its biggest monthly gain since February 2016. ... For all of 2020, U.S. intermodal originations were 13.46 million containers and trailers — the fourth highest annual total in history (behind 2017, 2018, and 2019) and down 2.0% (276,904 unit...