U.S. rail traffic still down sharply: industry group

U.S. rail traffic remains sharply down from a year ago, a trade group said, but shipments in some industries have shown improvement.

Carloadings on major U.S. railroads in the week ended October 31 dipped 13.7 percent from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads said in its weekly report.

But at 275,439 carloads, traffic was down 18.2 percent from the same week in 2007 -- before the recession hit.

A quick, widespread recovery is unlikely as modest increases in rail traffic from week to week have yet to push shipments up to pre-recession levels. (more)