A Semi-Merry Month of May

Railroad Weekly June 10, 2024

courtesy: Patrick Dirden

Inside This Issue

·   A Semi-Merry Month of May: Green Shoots for RR Growth, But…

·   Declines from the Mines: Coal Collapse Masking Otherwise Solid Growth

·   Basin Frustration: RRs Face Plummeting Powder River Coal Output  

·   Maple Grief: Canada’s RR Labor Tensions Still Festering  

·   Maple Relief: Canada’s West Coast Ports are Coming Alive

·   Shortline Lifeline: NS Looks to Smaller RR Partners for Growth

·   Fuel Duel: Diesel Prices Drop, Impacting RR vs. Truck Battle  

Track Talk

“You cannot run a railroad in 2024 and beyond, and expect to be successful without having the customer as part of the conversation, without having growth as part of the conversation… Much of the customer voice has been lost in the last 20 years.”

      -Norfolk Southern Business Development VP Stefan Loeb, speaking at a FreightWaves event last week      

The Latest

·   Was May a good month for U.S. rail traffic? In the aggregate, not really, with total traffic up just 1% y/y, and carload traffic alone (ex. intermodal) down 1%. But as the Association of American Railroads makes clear, the carload numbers look a lot better when excluding coal. As AAR’s chief economist Rand Ghayad clarifies: “While coal’s continued decline has led to a decrease in total carloads, a closer examination reveals that carloads excluding coal increased for the fourth consecutive month.” Intermodal traffic “spiked” in May, the result of both “increased port activity and intensified efforts by railroads to compete in a fiercely competitive market.” Ghayad also highlighted “solid volume gains… for petroleum products, chemicals, and grain.” AAR and its railroad members understand all too well that coal will become less