Rail freight data can help explain wider network pressure, especially around bulk commodities, intermodal lanes and port inland moves.
The challenge is that many useful rail indicators are reported as network or service measures rather than shipment-level facts.
Use public rail data for network-level context such as service trends, geography, interchange points and corridor relationships; it does not provide visibility into a private railcar or contract move.
Rail belongs beside highway, port and air cargo information because many supply chains depend on more than one mode before freight reaches the final market.