Econintersect: Week 32 of 2014 shows same week total rail traffic (from same week one year ago) grew according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) traffic data. Rail growth this week was continues to demonstrate an improving economy.

This analysis is looking for clues in the rail data to show the direction of economic activity - and is not necessarily looking for clues of profitability of the railroads. The weekly data is fairly noisy, and the best way to view it is to look at the rolling averages:

A summary of the data from the AAR:

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported increased U.S. rail traffic for the week ending August 9, 2014 with 301,755 total carloads, up 4.5 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 266,153 units, up 3.2 percent compared with the same week last year. Total combined U.S. weekly rail traffic was 567,908 carloads and intermodal units, up 3.9 percent compared with the same week last year.

Eight of 10 of the carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2013, including petroleum and petroleum products with 16,804 carloads, up 32.1 percent; grain with 21,191 carloads, up 26.5 percent; and nonmetallic minerals with 40,716 carloads, up 9.6 percent. Commodities that posted a decrease were coal with 114,101 carloads, down 2.6 percent, and farm products excluding grain and food with 15,567 carloads, down 1.3 percent.

For the first 32 weeks of 2014, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 9,221,860 carloads, up 3.7 percent compared with the same point last year, and 8,194,753 intermodal units, up 5.8 percent from last year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 32 weeks of 2014 was 17,416,613 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.7 percent from last year.

USA coal production is down 2.2% same week year-over-year - and coal accounts for well over 1/3rd of carloads.

Here is a look at the weekly data comparing it to the same week one year ago, backing out economically less intuitive coal and grain, and comparing growth year-to-date.

Current Rail Chart

From EIA.gov:

For the week ended August 9, 2014:

• U.S. coal production totaled approximately 19.2 million short tons (mmst)
• This production estimate is 1.5% lower than last week's estimate and 2.2% lower than the production estimate in the comparable week in 2013
• Coal production east of the Mississippi River totaled 8.1 mmst
• Coal production west of the Mississippi River totaled 11.1 mmst
• U.S. year-to-date coal production totaled 595.9 mmst, 0.8% lower than the comparable year-to-date coal production in 2013