UNP Union Pacific Corp

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail volume of carloads and intermodal units fell 1.5% last week, but overall U.S. traffic for the month of April improved significantly from March, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.

Carload volume for the week ended April 27 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads rose 1.3%, while intermodal traffic fell 4.3%, the trade group said.

North American rail traffic was 1.4% lower in the week ended April 20. For the first 17 weeks of the year, North American volume is down 1.2%.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 3.3% last week, dragged down by a 6.7% decline in the volume of weekly intermodal containers and trailers. Carloads rose 0.4% for the week, as shipments of coal, the biggest of the 10 carload commodity groups tracked, rose 2.7%.

U.S. rail traffic is down 1.9% for the year to date, the AAR said.

The group said rail traffic rose 5.1% in Canada last week, with carloads rising 5.4% and intermodal units up 4.8%.

Rail traffic rebounded in Mexico last week, falling 2.5% after two weeks of double-digit declines.

For the month of April, the AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 2.4%, compared with a 5.2% decline in March. Carloads were down less than 1% for the month, bouncing back from an 8.9% drop in March, when railroads were hit by severe flooding in the Midwest.

"It appears that some of the economic uncertainty that was prevalent earlier in the first quarter has dissipated, although concerns about trade issues may still be having an impact on rail volumes," the trade group said. "However, as long as the economy continues to show life, it's reasonable to think that rail traffic volumes will continue to improve in the coming months."

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 01, 2019 12:44 ET (16:44 GMT)

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