I read the Association of American Railroads traffic reports just like you do. Coal, oil, and metallic stuff – ie, things that make steel for China, which the Chinese don’t want right now, are all down. This February is off about 10,000 carloads of freight from February 2015. Let’s just say that most trains are about 100 cars long; if so, there were 100 fewer trains this February. It may be even less than that — remember the big push among the Class I railroads is to make trains longer, a topic we’ll explore in our June issue.
But you and I also know what Mark Twain said about statistics: Lies, damn lies, and stuff that comes out of the mouths of unsavory politicians (insert your least favorite candidate or elected official’s name here). Because of this, I prefer to make field inspections, which I did last weekend. From observations of the nearby Canadian Pacific and Canadian National main lines, I conclude that Americans are still buying cars, and lots of them. I saw a ton of autoracks. I also saw a lot of center beam flatcars, which tells me someone needs lots of lumber to build houses. And lastly, I saw one unit train of potash, which tells me that spring is around the corner.
I saw all kinds of other stuff, including unit trains of containers and even one of those rare crude oil trains. One thing I did not see: Coal trains. I miss coal trains. A railroad just isn’t one without coal. Is it my imagination, or is traffic picking up?
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