US rail transportation of grain products for the week ended September 3 totaled 24,455 cars, up 30.2% from the corresponding week a year ago, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.
Grain product shipments have totaled 759,334 carloads so far this year, up 4.9% from the same period of 2015, AAR said.
Rail transportation of chemical products rose 1% year on year to 31,751 cars. AAR designates fuel-grade ethanol as a chemical product. Chemical product shipments have totaled 1,084,805 cars so far this year, up 1.9% from the 2015 pace, the group said in its weekly report.
US railroads saw a 4.9% year-on-year decrease in total carloads to 273,117 cars for the week, AAR said. Including total carloads and intermodal units -- which totaled 265,709 units, a 5% decrease from 2015 -- total US railroad traffic reached 538,826 cars, 5% lower year on year.
Through the first 35 weeks of 2016, year-to-date traffic is down 7.2% from the 2015 pace.
