RAIL

Volumes for the week ended August 4 were 570,995 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.2% from the same week a year ago.
Traffic was 279,907 carloads, up 3%, while intermodal volume was 291,088 containers and trailers, up 5.4%.
Eight of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2017. They included grain, 20.2%, as exporters hurry shipments to Asia ahead of retaliatory restrictions in the face of more tariffs from the Trump Administration; petroleum and petroleum products, 15.5%, and motor vehicles and parts, 7.1%.
Declining commodities were miscellaneous carloads, 9.2%, and nonmetallic minerals, 1.3%.

Since the services began in 2011, the trains have delivered 800,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods, connecting 48 Chinese cities with 42 European cities, according to CRC.
For more than 7 years, the services have been improving connectivity between Chinese and European cities, boosting economic and trade ties.
Zhang Wei, an engineer with China Railway Container Transport Corporation, said he has witnessed the development of the freight trains, with the number of trains departing from Southwest China's Chongqing municipality increasing steadily over the years.
"For me, the China-Europe freight train is like a kid. As it grows up gradually, I feel so proud," Zhang said.

The service will operate on the 650km 1520mm-gauge route linking Tallinn, Riga in Latvia, and the Lithuanian-Polish border at Šestokai, where containers will be transhipped to standard-gauge trains. The service will be managed jointly by Estonia’s state-owned freight operator EVR Cargo, Latvia’s LDZ Logistika, and Lithuanian Railways (LG).
The agreement was signed by Mr. Raul Toomsalu, chairman of EVR Cargo, Ms. Svetlana Berga, chairwoman of Latvian Railways’ freight subsidiary LDZ Cargo, Mr. Eduards Cernavskis, board member of LDZ Logistika, and Mr. Egidijus Lazauskas, deputy director general and freight transport director of LG.