Tag Archives: rail shipments

Written by Steven Hansen Depending on how you view the data, using rail to analyze the economy presents a mixed picture in December 2012.  Rail becomes a transporter of commodities early in the manufacturing cycle, and its intermodal movements (usually … Continue reading →

Written by Steven Hansen The variations and special situations associated with rail traffic continue.  In the November 2012 Association of American Railroads (AAR) report talks about one of the wobbles in this month’s data. As of November 2012, year-over-year U.S. … Continue reading →

Written by Steven Hansen The October 2012 rail data overall trend shows transport is weakening. Even the growth in intermodal traffic continues to show lower growth, and is no longer growing at a record pace. ….. Intermodal volume in October … Continue reading →

Written by Steven Hansen The September 2012 rail data can be read several ways, but the overall trend seems to show transport is weakening.  Even the growth in the “hottest” portion of rail was not as good as previous months, … Continue reading →

Written by Steven Hansen Based on the July 2012 rail data, we warned that the economy could be at a pivot point based on declining economic intuitive elements of the rail data – and now with the August data, the … Continue reading →

Written by Steven Hansen Could it be that rail is warning of an economic pivot point?  Reflecting on the July 2012 rail data which we report on weekly – the trends within the data have changed.  Is it just one … Continue reading →

Written by Steven Hansen Not only has coal been screwing up analysis of rail data, this month we can add grain to the list.  The transport portion of the economy is showing the real economy is expanding at least 3%. … Continue reading →