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Hey there, freight fans! In this week’s Rail and Intermodal Update, FTR’s Joseph Towers walks us through everything from geopolitical tensions to commodity traffic trends. Let’s dive in and break it down.
🚂 Rail Traffic Snapshot (Week Ending June 21, 2025)
Total North American rail traffic was down 1.3% YoY.
But there's more to the story when you zoom in:
📦 Carload Highlights:
- Up overall by 3.5%
- Big movers:
- Grain: ↑ 20.1%
- Metal scrap: ↑ 10.9%
- Motor vehicles: ↑ 8.2%
- "All other" category: ↑ 40.8%
- On the decline:
- Farm products (ex. grain): ↓ 22.9%
- Primary forest products: ↓ 14.0%
- Pulp & paper: ↓ 8.3%
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Rail Market Update Podcast
This article was created from an excerpt from FTR's biweekly rail podcast with Joseph Towers.
🔩 Tariffs are shifting metals traffic:
- U.S. carriers:
- Metal products: ↑ 14.2%
- Metal scrap: ↑ 10.4%
- Canadian carriers:
- Metal products: ↓ 12.9%
- Metal scrap: ↓ 4.1%
👀 The takeaway? Those steel and aluminum tariffs are starting to show in the numbers.
If your 2025 plan includes "cross fingers and hope for the best"… it might be time to pivot.
Join our free webinar on Key Issues in Transportation and learn how to stay ahead of the curve—even when the curve looks like a hairpin turn.
📅 It’s free. It’s strategic. It’s basically your seatbelt for the freight market: www.ftrintel.com/keyissues
🚛 Intermodal: A Mixed Bag
Intermodal traffic was down 0.8% YoY, marking three weeks of decline.
- Western carriers (BNSF & UP): ↓ ~5%
- Eastern carriers:
- CSX: ↑ YoY
- Norfolk Southern: ↓ YoY
- Canadian carriers (CN & CPKC): ↑ 8.9%
- Mexico’s GMXT: ↓ 10.7%
So, while Canada is seeing gains, Western U.S. networks are still feeling the pinch from Chinese tariffs. Until next time, keep tracking those trends and stay ahead of the market curve!
