North America's railroads reported falling volumes and tough trading conditions in the first six months of the year.rnHowever, resilient pricing limited the impact on their earnings and this restored some respectability to their profit levels (see table).rnUS west coast railroad Union Pacific reported a 24% decline in revenue to USD6.3 billion while operating income fell 17% to USD1.4 billion. The company blamed a 21% drop in traffic volumes but ongoing efficiency improvements helped pare down operating expenses. Intermodal traffic was off 20% on the corresponding period of 2008.
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