The North American rail equipment fleet slightly increased its total size during the third quarter of 2023. The total equipment count was 2,113,734, for a change of about 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).
Flats led gains, up 1.6 percent, followed by EOTs which increased 0.9 percent. IM Flats led declines, down 0.3 percent.
The total count of equipment in the revenue-earning fleet stands at about 1.64 million, up by 0.1 percent from the previous quarter. Gondolas increased 0.5 percent, and Open Hoppers declined about 0.6 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.
