Surface Transportation Board
The Service Transportation Board this week extended through the end of this year a requirement that all Class I Railroads submit monthly employment data. The next reports are to be submitted by February 15. However, the board will no longer require railroads to submit the rail service and performance data that it ordered in May 2022.
The four largest Class I carriers – BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific – also will be required to provide detailed information by the end of February on their hiring and retention plans and to provide an update on their labor force targets. Except for CSX, those carriers also must continue to submit data about trainees in their monthly reports.
In announcing its decision, STB noted that the four largest carriers have increased overall workforce levels since May 2022 and have met most of the interim labor force targets they had set. Even so, employment at those carriers is still about 14,000 below pre-pandemic levels and has been basically flat for the past six months, the board said.
As for the service performance data, STB said that because data from recent weeks shows that service has improved since April 2022, “the Board does not see the need at this time to extend the service data reporting previously required in this docket.”
Rail & Intermodal Volume
North American rail carload and intermodal traffic during the week ended January 27 saw a big rebound week over week as the prior week’s severe winter weather faded away. Both carload and intermodal loadings jumped more than 17% sequentially with only one commodity category – non-metallic minerals – seeing a decline.
The story was different y/y, however. Total carloads were down about 7%. Several key commodities posted double-digit decreases y/y, including farm products; primary forecast products; non-metallic minerals; coal, coke, crushed stone, sand and gravel; and grain. North American intermodal traffic was up more than 7% y/y, however, and volume in several commodity groups was modestly higher y/y in the latest week.
Through the first four weeks of the year, only intermodal and chemicals carloads are seeing any positive y/y comparisons for North America, and both are small. The U.S. and Canada are fully responsible as Mexican rail traffic, which is a tiny portion of overall volume, is up y/y for intermodal and every major carload commodity group.
