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Whats going on with railroad traffic falling?

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Posted by schlimm on Thursday, January 14, 2016 7:11 AM

Oil, ethanol, coal and grain have been a large proportion of carloadings. Drastically cut two of them and you have the reason for the reduction.

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, January 14, 2016 6:37 AM

Rail traffic has always been considered a 'leading economic indicator'.

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Whats going on with railroad traffic falling?
Posted by CMStPnP on Thursday, January 14, 2016 12:18 AM

Lots of concern on Wall Street with railroad traffic levels falling and trending downward.    Many are pointing to it as a sign of recession.    Personally, despite the Chinese House of Cards teetering.........I don't see a recession for the United States this year and am curious why traffic would be declining on the mercantile side of the fence.     Keep hearing that the Big Three had their best year in a while and other manufacturing in the United States doing pretty well.   Is it just a case of inventories being too high and needing to be worked off?

Yes, I know Baaken Oil has declined along with Coal but Wall Street is really looking at the fall off in intermodal and merchandise shipments.     I would think would be normal this time of year, right after Christmas but what do I know?

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