Box 5-B Transportation Services Index (TSI)
The Transportation Services Index (TSI), produced by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), measures the movement of freight and passengers. BTS produces three indexes – a freight index, a passenger index, and a total or combined index. The indexes combine monthly data from multiple for-hire transportation modes. Each index shows the month-to-month change in for-hire transportation services. Monthly data on each mode of transportation is seasonally adjusted and then combined into the three indexes. The freight index is a weighted average of data for trucking, freight rail, waterborne, pipeline, and air freight. The passenger index is a weighted average of data for passenger aviation, transit, and passenger rail. The combined index is a weighted average of all these modes. These indexes serve both as multimodal monthly measures of the state of transportation and as indicators of the U.S. economic future.