September 2025 Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) fell 2.1% from August 2025

Nov 13, 2025

The Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI), fell 2.1% in September from August, falling for the month after two months of growth, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). From September 2024 to September 2025 the index fell 1.2%. The freight TSI measures the amount of freight carried by the for-hire transportation industry.

Freight Transportation Services Index, September 2022 - September 2025

The Passenger TSI fell 2.9% in September from August, falling for the month after two months of growth. From September 2024 to September 2025 the index fell 1.1%. The passenger TSI measures passenger transportation volumes on local transit, intercity rail, and air transportation. The Combined Freight and Passenger Index fell by 2.3% in September from August and fell by 1.1% from September 2024 to September 2025.

Analysis: The Freight TSI decreased in September due to decreases in air freight, rail carloads, rail intermodal, and trucking while pipeline and water increased.

The table below shows Freight TSI and its changes in the context of other important monthly economic indicators. The table shows seasonally adjusted indicators unless noted. Several of the other economic indicators were not available due to the government shutdown.

The Freight TSI in Comparison to Other Economic Indicators

Economic Indicator	July	August	September
Freight Transportation Services Index	139.0	139.1	136.2
Percent Change	1.4	0.1	-2.1
Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Industrial Production Index	103.8	103.9	NA
Percent Change	-0.4	0.1	NA
FRB Manufacturing (percent change)	-0.1	0.2	NA
FRB Mining (percent change)	-1.5	0.9	NA
FRB Utilities (percent change)	-0.7	-2.0	NA
Housing Starts (thousands of units)	1,429.0	1,307.0	NA
Percent Change	3.4	-8.5	NA
Retail Sales: Retail Trade (millions of nominal dollars)	628,620.0	NA	NA
Percent Change	0.7	NA	NA
Personal Income (billions of chained 2017 dollars)	20,625.7	20,646.5	NA
Percent Change	0.2	0.1	NA
Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Index (percent) (50+ = expansion)	48.0	48.7	49.1
Percentage Point Change	-1.0	0.7	0.4

BTS estimates pipeline petroleum, air freight, and air passenger one month ahead of reported data (i.e., the air and pipeline data are available through August, BTS estimates the September pipeline petroleum, air freight, and air passenger in the September index). BTS also forecasted waterborne for September due to the data being unavailable.

Revisions: Monthly data has changed from previous releases due to the use of concurrent seasonal analysis, which results in seasonal analysis factors changing as each month’s data are added. BTS revised the August freight index to 139.1 from 138.9. in last month's release and the August passenger index to 127.4 from 126.4.

Brief Explanation of the TSI

The TSI measures the month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the for-hire transportation industries. The freight index measure changes in freight shipments while the passenger index measures changes in passenger travel.

The TSI tells us how the output of transportation services increased or decreased from month to month. The index can be examined together with other economic indicators to produce a better understanding of the current and future course of the economy. The movement of the index over time can be compared with other economic measures to understand the relationship of changes in transportation output to changes in Gross Domestic Product.

The freight transportation index consists of:

• For-hire trucking,

• Railroad freight services (including rail based intermodal shipments such as containers on flat cars),

• Inland waterways transportation,

• Pipeline transportation (including principally petroleum and petroleum products and natural gas), and

• Air freight.

• The index does not include international or coastal waterborne movements, private trucking, courier services, or the US Postal Service.