The North American rail equipment fleet increased its total size during the fourth quarter of 2022. The total equipment count was 2,092,310, for a change of 0.2 percent.
The four largest segments during the quarter were Covered Hoppers (29 percent), Tank Cars (22 percent) and Gondolas and Intermodal (10 percent).
Eight car groups increased from the last quarter, led by Misc., up 2.7 percent, and EOTs and Box Cars, up 2.3 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively. Hoppers led declines, down 1.4 percent, followed by Locomotives, down 0.4 percent.
The total count of equipment in the revenue-earning fleet currently stands at about 1.67 million, up by 2.8 percent from the previous quarter. All equipment groups were up with the exception of Open Hoppers, which decreased by 0.7 percent.
The revenue-earning fleet is a subset of the North American rail fleet that is largely composed of freight cars that can be used in interchange service and against which an interline waybill can be placed. The revenue-earning fleet of freight cars is made up of six sub-fleets: box cars, covered hoppers, flats, gondolas, open hoppers and tank cars. It excludes locomotives, intermodal trailers and containers, maintenance-of-way equipment and end-of-train devices.
