US rail transportation of grain products for the week ended September 16 totaled 20,856 cars, down 7.4% from the corresponding week a year ago, according to data released Wednesday by the Association of American Railroads.
Rail transportation of chemical products fell 60.8% year on year to 30,467 cars. AAR designates fuel-grade ethanol as a chemical product. Cumulatively, grain product shipments totaled 816,447 carloads thus far in 2017, up 1.5% from the same period in 2016. Chemical product shipments totaled 1.145 million cars, 0.1% behind the 2016 pace, AAR said.
Total carloads last week saw a 36.6% year-on-year decrease to 260,771 cars, AAR said. Including total carloads and intermodal units -- which totaled 270.003 units, a 0.9% increase from 2016 -- total US railroad traffic reached 530,774 cars, 1.4% lower year on year.
Through the first 37 weeks of the year, total year-to-date traffic is up 3.7% from the 2016 pace.
