Rail service derails

Rail service derails

Three months into 2004, rail service measures continue to reflect worsening performance. Weighted average speed on the seven leading North American railroads fell by 6.2%, continuing a slide that places year-to-date speed 5.9% behind the prior-year period.

In the last four weeks, average terminal dwell time increased by 7.9%, reflecting the 9.9% increase in the 14th week of 2004. Year-to-date, terminal dwell times have increased 7.4%.

At the top of the speed measure is Kansas City Southern, which showed a 10.4% increase in weighted average speed. Its year-to-date performance has improved 13%.

At the other end of the scale, Union Pacific's (UP) speed slowed by 16.2% in the week or 12.1% year to date. Morgan Stanley reports this is the worst performance since it began tracking the data in 1999. UP also led the increases in terminal dwell time, with a 24.1% increase for the week. Dwell times for UP were up 18.2% year to date.

Canadian National did the best job of improving terminal dwell times, reducing them by 12.6% year-to-date.

May, 2004

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