Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific were the only major Class I railroads to show volume growth in 2022.
UP took the crown among the top six systems, with its overall traffic up 2%. The increase was driven by a 5% gain in carload traffic, including a 9% jump in coal volume. UP’s intermodal traffic was down 2% for the year.
CP’s 1.7% growth was due almost entirely to an 11.5% gain in intermodal traffic. The only other commodities that were up on CP were potash and its metals, minerals and consumer products business segment.
Total North American rail volume was down 1.9% for 2022, according to the Association of American Railroads.
BNSF Railway was in the volume basement: Its traffic was off by 5.6% last year. Intermodal was down 8.5%, while carloads including coal were off by 2.2%. Coal volume was flat, at 0.13% above 2021 levels.
A 4.4% decline in intermodal traffic helped push Norfolk Southern into negative territory for the year. Overall volume was down by 2.6% despite a 5.4% gain in coal traffic. NS’s merchandise business declined 1.3%.
Canadian National and CSX Transportation saw their volumes fall by less than 1%.
CN’s overall volume was down 0.5%, with intermodal off 5.8% and merchandise business down 0.2%. A 33.9% surge in coal volume drove a 15.3% increase in the railway’s bulk traffic segment.
CSX’s volume declined 0.7%, with all three business segments in negative territory. Intermodal was down 0.4%, coal by 0.9%, and overall carloads including coal by 1%.
CSX’s tallies, however, did not include volume from Pan Am Railways, the New England regional that it acquired on June 1.
Steven Berg You Hit the Nail Right on the Head
UP declares growth by making their customers wish they had gone “Greyhound”.☺
@Steven Berg UP didn’t “declare” growth. It hauled more cars in 2022 than in 2021.
“UP took the crown among the top six systems, with its overall traffic up 2%. The increase was driven by a 5% gain in carload traffic, including a 9% jump in coal volume. UP’s intermodal traffic was down 2% for the year.
Of course, hauling Flammable Black Rocks has been a dependable commodity for … oh, almost 200 years.
How did Revenues and Operating Income do? Answers to be revealed soon.
Good question! Imagine what UP’s volume growth would have been had they not had all of those service “embargoes” last year?
Surprising that UP actually had “growth” last year, given all of their operating problems and apathetic attitude towards their shippers ….?
How does a railroad (UP) declare a “growth” when it runs numerous embargo’s for the last 6 months?