Total N. American rail traffic came in at 693K cars last week, flat over the previous week but up from ’11.
As usual, accounting for the collapse in coal being shipped by rail due to the switch to natural gas, traffic would have been easily above the 700k mark again. On both charts I have marked in red the corresponding week to show the increased rail traffic and decreased coal traffic.
Coal:
It is pretty clear the continued YOY growth in rail traffic implies continued overall economic growth for the US. We should also note that while there is continued growth, it is by no means spectacular so one not ought to expect GDP to grow 3% either. Steady moderate growth seems to b the plan….
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