A product’s path from manufacturer to store shelf is currently an obstacle course of chokepoints within the interconnected global supply chain, and U.S. rail is among the industries feeling the pinch.
U.S. railroads moved 1,167,682 carloads of freight in September 2021, the Association of American Railroads Weekly Rail Traffic Report shows. That’s up 4.3 percent compared to September 2020, the year marked by deflated business numbers caused by global COVID-19 shutdowns. But compared to the more normal September 2019, the 2021 rail carloads are down 5.8 percent.
