Aggregate rail volumes up 8 percent

The crushed stone and sand and gravel category saw an increase in carloads last month, according to AAR.

Rail carloads of crushed stone, sand and gravel were up 8 percent last month over March 2017, reports the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Ten of the 20 carload commodity categories AAR tracks, including crushed stone, sand and gravel, saw carload gains compared to March 2017. Overall, March 2018 rail traffic and volumes were up 3.6 percent.

“Railroads are a derived-demand industry,” says John Gray, AAR senior vice president of policy and economics. “Their level of business depends to a large degree on what’s happening elsewhere in the economy. There’s always some economic uncertainty – today that involves, among other things, trade relations, commodity prices, and what the Fed will do about interest rates – but economic signals today are mostly positive.

“Rail traffic in March was largely positive too, at least in terms of traffic segments that are most sensitive to what’s going on in the country,” Gray adds.