Random Look At US Rail Traffic -- Week 28, Ending July 13, 2013 -- Lots Of Red

The link to the PDF.

Two story lines jump out:

• no evidence of any economic recovery; lots of red. A lot.
• if it weren't for "petroleum and petroleum products" more than just the rails would be in trouble

Cumulative, year-to-date:

• grain shipments were down almost 17%
• motor vehicles up 2.3% year-to-date, cumulative, but were down almost 20% this week vs same week one year ago

Cumulative, year-to-date, it was all red except for:

• forest products, up 2.3%
• motor vehicles and parts, up 2.6%
• nonmetallic minerals and products (fracking sand?), up 6.6%

Oh, one more sector was up, cumulative, year-to-date:

• petroleum and petroleum products: up 46% 

It's a pretty sad report. And it hasn't changed much in the past year.