BTS Indicators Report Shows Decline In Rail Accidents

Contact BTS 17-01 Catrina Pavlik 202-366-1500

Monday, August 6, 2001 -- The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today released its monthly Transportation Indicators report showing that rail accidents and incidents reached a 10-year low in April 2001—more than 6 percent below the number for April 2000.

The BTS report is a monthly update of critical transportation information that details the impact of transportation on the nation’s economy and society.

Dr. Ashish Sen, BTS Director, said, "The Transportation Indicators report provides information that shows trends in transportation safety. This information can be useful to transportation decision-makers as they work to improve the transportation infrastructure."

Transportation Indicators provides information on more than 90 trends in the areas of safety, mobility, economic growth, the human and natural environment, and national security. The monthly report, which is available at www.bts.gov, provides information to address specific transportation issues and to assist in the effort led by BTS to make transportation information more accurate, reliable, and timely. Updated reports will be available on the BTS website the fourth week of every month.

Other trends highlighted in this month’s report are:

• Over 82 percent of scheduled flights arrived on time (within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival) in May 2001, the best results for on-time performance since November 1998.
• The producer price for crude petroleum was nearly 13 percent lower in June 2001 than in June 2000, while the producer price for petroleum products dropped only 1 percent over the same period.
• Corporate profits in for-hire transportation industries dropped almost 23 percent from the fourth quarter of 2000 to the first quarter of 2001, while income rose slightly.
• Air carriers’ operating expenses exceeded revenues in the first quarter of 2001, for the first time since 1993.
• Manufacturers’ new orders for transportation equipment rose at a seasonally adjusted rate of over 9 percent in May 2001 compared to the previous month, recovering somewhat from the 15 percent drop between March and April 2001.
• Medium and heavy truck sales were 35 percent lower in June 2001 than in June 2000, continuing a general decline over the past 10 months. Car sales were down 4 percent, while light trucks (including pickups, SUVS, vans, and minivans) were up nearly 5 percent, the highest in volume for light trucks for any June in the past 10 years.
• Retail gas prices declined by 2.51 percent in the first full week of July, while on-highway diesel prices declined by 1.07 percent compared to the previous week.
• Domestic unit prices for jet fuel used by scheduled airlines were nearly 10 percent higher in May 2001 than in May 2000, while jet fuel prices for nonscheduled airlines were up over 7 percent.
• The value of exports and imports both declined between March and April 2001 at a seasonally adjusted rate of slightly under 3 percent.
• The value of surface trade by truck and rail between the U.S. and Canada and the U.S. and Mexico declined in April 2001 compared to April 2000, while the pipeline trade value increased by over 150 percent between the U.S. and Mexico, and by over 69 percent between the U.S. and Canada.
• Transportation energy consumption in March 2001 was more than 4 percent higher than in March 2000, while transportation energy use per dollar of GDP was nearly 1 percent higher in the first quarter of 2001 than the first quarter of 2000.
• Net imports of petroleum in May 2001 were 7 percent higher than in May 2000.

Continual updating of information on trends will help in developing forecasts for the future, both within the department and outside. The monthly report will also help transportation decision-makers spot changes that might require rapid action.