Fleet revitalization The freight car fleet has been growing for four years running. By DAVID D. HUMPHREY, Ph.D., Senior Analyst, It’s also getting younger.
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he revenue-earning railcar fleet is a subset of the North American railcar fleet that is largely composed of freight cars that can be used in interchange service and against which an interline waybill can be placed. It is made up of six sub-fleets: hoppers, covered hoppers, gondolas, flat cars, tank cars and boxcars. (It excludes locomotives, intermodal trailers and containers, maintenance-of-way equipment and end-oftrain devices.) Railinc’s annual review of the North American revenueearning railcar fleet shows the fleet continued its growth in 2014. The total size of the revenue-earning fleet increased for the fourth consecutive year—adding cars in the tank car and covered hopper sub-fleets, while the flat car, boxcar and hopper sub-fleets contracted. The average age of cars in the revenue-earning fleet declined for the third year in a row, suggesting more new cars are joining the fleet as older cars exit. Railinc’s analysis of the fleet is focused on highlighting trends and changes. 36 Railway Age May 2015
Railinc Corp., for Railway Age
KEY FINDINGS
The revenue-earning fleet increased in size in 2014: The growth rate increased in 2014, and the fleet surpassed its 2009 population level. The total fleet size is up 2.6 percentage points from year-end 2013 to year-end 2014, compared with a 0.9% increase the previous year. An increase in the tank car population drove growth in the revenue-earning fleet. Tank cars and covered hoppers, the two largest sub-fleets, increased in numbers in 2014, while gondolas were unchanged. Hoppers and boxcars, the two smallest sub-fleets, continued their decline. The average age of the revenue-earning fleet decreased slightly in 2014, for the third consecutive year, going from 19.9 years to 19.8 years. The decrease suggests more new cars are joining the fleet as older cars exit. The trend of 286,000-pound gross rail load (GRL 286) cars predominating among additions to the revenue-earning fleet continued in 2014. The number of GRL 286 cars added to the fleet in 2014 was about 25% more than in the previous year and the most in a decade. Larger cars enable