For U.S. rail traffic, 2016 wasn’t exactly a banner year. Total carloads fell 8.2 percent compared with 2015’s level, marking the second consecutive year of declining traffic, according to data from the Association of American Railroads (AAR). A weak manufacturing economy and turmoil in energy markets were two of the main reasons for the decline, AAR officials said earlier this year. With their traffic dwindling among primary money-makers like coal, some Class Is have refocused their efforts on revenue opportunities in other business segments. One of the more promising segments is transloading, which is the transfer of goods from one transportation mode to another to complete a shipment.
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