Triple 14 — Monday, September 14, 2026

TL;DR — No port-side data cleared verification this cycle. The only sourced operational intel available today is the rail/intermodal leg: U.S. rail traffic for the week ending September 5 (week 35) hit 533,545 carloads and intermodal units, up 13.8% year over year, with intermodal at 299,148 units, up 18.0% [1][2]. Treat that headline gain with caution — the prior week moved more total volume (543,212 units) on a far smaller 4.1% YoY gain [3], which points to a soft comparison base rather than a demand surge. Brokers pricing drayage and inland moves off the 18% intermodal print this week are pricing off a base effect, not a step change in loadings. Port dwell, chassis, and berth-queue figures are unavailable and are flagged below rather than estimated.

Port snapshot — No material development in the fetched sources this cycle. No dwell times, vessel backups, chassis availability, or berth/gate throughput figures for LA/LB, NY/NJ, Savannah, or Houston appear in any source retrieved for today's file, and no figure is carried forward from a prior period.

Service advisories — On rail connections, week 35 carloads totaled 234,397, up 8.9% year over year, with nine of ten carload commodity groups posting gains [1][2]. Leaders were metallic ores and metals, up 4,859 to 23,122; grain, up 4,373 to 22,509; and chemicals, up 3,848 to 33,653. Coal was the sole decliner, down 3,547 to 58,037 [1][2]. Year to date through 35 weeks, intermodal stands at 9,904,325 units, up 4.2%, with combined traffic at 17,890,653 units, up 3.6% [1] — a steadier read than any single-week number and the one to anchor capacity planning on. Cross-border, Canadian intermodal rose 8.9% to 72,202 units and Mexican intermodal 10.1% to 14,729 in week 35 [1], the closest available proxy for cross-border drayage demand. No weather or labor disruption reporting affecting berth or gate throughput was retrievable this cycle; nothing here should be read as an all-clear on ILA or ILWU terminals or on tropical activity.

Regulatory — No material development in the fetched sources this cycle.

Signals worth watching — Two pulls will settle the rail question. First, the AAR week-36 release should confirm or break the week-35 comparison-base read; if intermodal holds near 299,000 units against a normalized prior-year week, the growth is real. Second, the STB requires Class I carriers to file weekly service-performance reports covering weekly average terminal dwell time and overall system dwell, cars online by type, trains held per day by cause, loaded and empty cars not moved in 48 or more hours, and Chicago gateway data including average daily car counts in Chicago yards and trains held short of Chicago [4]. Those filings are the correct source for the inland-terminal side of a port brief and are current-filing weekly. On the marine side, the feeds needed to close today's gap are Pacific Merchant Shipping Association dwell data and the Port of LA Signal for LA/LB, the Port Authority of NY & NJ for berth waits and rail-lift backlogs, Georgia Ports Authority updates for the Savannah vessel queue and yard utilization, Port Houston terminal advisories for channel status and gate hours, and Sea-Intelligence for schedule reliability. Add those to the source set and the full port snapshot files same day.

Sources

1. AAR Reports Weekly Rail Traffic for the Week Ending September 5, 2026 — Railpace Newsmagazine, Sept. 9, 2026 — https://railpace.com/aar-reports-weekly-rail-traffic-for-the-week-ending-september-5-2026/
2. AAR reports Rail Traffic for the week ending September 05, 2026 — Material Handling Wholesaler, Sept. 9, 2026 — https://www.mhwmag.com/nuts-bolts/aar-reports-rail-traffic-for-the-week-ending-september-05-2026/
3. U.S. freight railroads report increased traffic in week 34 — Progressive Railroading, Sept. 3, 2026 — https://www.progressiverailroading.com/rail_industry_trends/news/US-freight-railroads-report-increased-traffic-in-week-34--77687
4. Rail Service Data — Surface Transportation Board — https://www.stb.gov/reports-data/rail-service-data/