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The Association of American Railroads, AAR reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending June 27, as well as volumes for June 2020. U.S. railroads originated 794,256 carloads in June 2020, down 22.4%, or 228,975 carloads, from June 2019. U.S. railroads also originated 1,004,933 containers and trailers in June 2020, down 6.6 percent, or 70,994 units, from the same month last year. Combined U.S. carload and intermodal originations in June 2020 were 1,799,189, down 14.3%, or 299,969 carloads and intermodal units from June 2019."June was a month in which the slow recovery process that began in early May, began to accelerate," said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray. "By the end of June, freight loadings had improved by about 60,000 carload and intermodal units weekly over where they had been in late April. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 628,993 carloads and intermodal units, down 14.3%. North American rail volume for the first 26 weeks of 2020 was 16,174,394 carloads and intermodal units, down 12% compared with 2019. Publicly traded companies in the space include CSX (CSX), Canadian National (CNI), Canadian Pacific (CP), Genesee & Wyoming (GWR), Kansas City Southern (KSU), Norfolk Southern (NSC) and Union Pacific (UNP). Reference Link

CN announced that, as part of its strategic investments to support growing demand and enable supply chains, it plans to invest approximately C$310M across Ontario in 2020. The investments will focus on intermodal facilities, the replacement of rail and ties, as well as the maintenance of bridges, level crossings, culverts, signal systems and other track infrastructure. The Company's investments will create greater capacity, which supports reductions in its customer's transportation supply chain GHG emissions, by encouraging the use of rail for long haul needs. This reduces emissions, traffic congestion, accidents and burdens on public transportation infrastructure as one freight train can replace over 300 trucks from roads. Moving freight by rail instead of truck reduces GHG emissions by 75%. The Company will continue to deploy important safety enhancing technologies in Ontario, such as the Autonomous Track Inspection Program, and Automated Inspection Portals.

CN announced that, as part of its strategic investments to support growing demand and enable supply chains, it plans to invest approximately C$445 million across British Columbia in 2020. CN said in a release, "The investments will include expansion projects that will add track in yards to handle growing traffic, new sidings as well as continued investments in multi-year initiatives to increase capacity at the Port of Vancouver and at the Port of Prince Rupert in collaboration with the Government of Canada, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, and the Prince Rupert Port Authority. The maintenance program will focus on the replacement of rail and ties and maintenance work on level crossings, culverts, signal systems and other track infrastructure. The Company's investments will create greater capacity, which supports reductions in its customer's transportation supply chain GHG emissions, by encouraging the use of rail for long haul needs. This reduces emissions, traffic congestion, accidents and burdens on public transportation infrastructure as one freight train can replace over 300 trucks from roads. Moving freight by rail instead of truck reduces GHG emissions by 75%. The Company will continue to deploy important safety enhancing technologies across its network, such as the Autonomous Track Inspection Program, Distributed Air Cars and Automated Inspection Portals."