The Transportation Services Index (TSI) measures monthly freight and passenger movement output, created by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Columns suggest granular data on air revenue ton miles (AIR_RTMFM), rail freight carloads (RAIL_FRT_CARLOADS), trucking indices (IDX_TRUCK_D11), and passenger metrics like enplanements (ENPLANE_I). The dataset is seasonally-adjusted to reveal underlying economic trends.
Use Cases
- Forecast total transportation services output (TSI) using component indices like IDX_TRUCK_D11, IDX_WATERBORNE_D11, and AIR_RPM_TSI.
- Analyze airline passenger demand trends using passenger miles (RPM_I), enplanements (ENPLANE_I), and load factor (LOAD_FACTOR_I).
- Model freight sector performance by correlating rail freight carloads (RAIL_FRT_CARLOADS) with trucking (IDX_TRUCK_D11) and pipeline (IDX_PETROLEUM_D11) indices.
- Detect seasonal patterns and economic turning points in seasonally-adjusted (D11 suffix) and non-adjusted versions of metrics like ASM and RPM_D.
Strengths
- Created and maintained by the authoritative U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
- Seasonally-adjusted data (columns with _D11 suffix) allows for direct month-to-month comparison of underlying trends.
- Granular breakdown into freight and passenger components across multiple modes (air, rail, truck, water, pipeline).
Limitations
- Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality and completeness require manual inspection after download.
- Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to U.S.-centric sources.
Provenance
- Source
- U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (data.bts.gov).
- Collection Method
- Likely compiled from multiple transportation industry data sources and statistically adjusted.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-13 15:15:14; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- United States.