The latest figures leave 18.4 percent of the North American railcar fleet stored instead of in active freight service, up from 18.2 percent on May 1. Although that is far below the 31.9 percent stored fleet when at the depth of the recession in June and July 2009, the AAR says when the industry is healthiest only 2-3 percent of available railcars would be idle.

Hopefully this isn’t the start of a trend.