AAR: Petroleum Carloads See Weekly 3.9% Drop on Week

HOUSTON, TX (DTN) – The Association of American Railroads (AAR) data show petroleum and petroleum product carloads totaled 10,360 in the week ending December 20, down by 3.9% from the same week a year earlier.

Year to date, petroleum and petroleum products carloads totaled 528,840, 1.7% lower than the corresponding week of last year, an AAR report published on Wednesday (12/24) showed.

Total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 487,138 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending December 20, down by 7.0% compared with the same week last year, the same data showed.

Last week, total carloads were 206,674 carloads, down by 10.5% from same week of 2024. Intermodal volume was 280,464 containers and trailers in the week profiled; a 4.3% decline compared to last year.

For the first 51 weeks of 2025, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 11,320,426 carloads, a 1.5% increase from the same period last year; and 13,851,979 intermodal units, up by 1.6% from previous year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 51 weeks of 2025 was 25,172,405 carloads and intermodal units, an increase of 1.5% compared to last year.

North American rail volume for the week ending December 20, on 9 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 310,557 carloads, down by 8.7% compared with the same week last year, and 361,679 intermodal units, down by 3.9% from the volume recorded the previous year.