Canadian Pacific Kansas City was the fastest-growing railroad in the second quarter, with its overall volume up 6%.
CPKC’s industry-leading growth was due to double-digit increases in intermodal (14%), grain (16%), and coal (10%).
Union Pacific ranked No. 2 for the quarter, with its volume up 4% overall, led by a 31% increase in coal traffic and a 16% bump in grain volume.
Norfolk Southern came in third, with 3% growth for the quarter. NS’s gains were propelled by 4% growth in merchandise traffic and a 13% gain in coal volume.
BNSF Railway saw a 1.6% gain for the quarter. Coal volume was up 12%, leading all major traffic groups for the quarter.
CSX eked out a 0.5% volume gain, with intermodal up 2%, coal up 3.3%, and merchandise down 2%.
CN’s overall volume declined 1% for the quarter despite a 26% increase in grain traffic. CN’s merchandise traffic sagged 4%, while its coal volume was flat, and intermodal was up 1%.
Union Pacific (1%) and Norfolk Southern (4%) were the only Class I railroads to show growth in merchandise traffic.
With the exception of CPKC, intermodal growth was anemic: CSX and UP up 2%, CN and NS up 1%, and BNSF up 0.4%.
Four of the six systems also saw their coal traffic grow by double-digits during the quarter.
Overall, North American rail volume was up 3% for the quarter, with intermodal up 2%, merchandise down 1%, and coal and grain both up 6%.
One data point is not enough to declare anything but are we slowly starting to see CPKC leverage its US/Mexico strength at a cost to CN? CN whose US/Mexico pretty much ends at Mobile & dependent on a vessel and whatever agreements with other railroads. It seems any CPKC revenue/carload increase provides leverage better pricing overall on competing markets with CN and wonder what they have been able to take away from as of late
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I do think US transcontinental mergers are coming, lead by UP, but also think BNSF is missing the opportunity on pretty much everything as it focuses on paying dividends to Berkshire Hathaway. Great thing for Buffet crowd but not so much for Railroads position of moving freight in the market.