<p>The drought-affected Freight Australia performance continues to hit RailAmerica’s figures, the US rail giant reported this week.</p> <p>RailAmerica said both monthly and year-to-date 2003 consolidated carloads "continue to be significantly impacted by the Australian drought".</p> <p>Carload figures for Freight Australia for September 2003 were 12,618, down 22.4% from 16,263 for September last year.</p> <p>The year-to-date figure of 115,264 was 27.2% down on the same period last year, RailAmerica stated. </p> <br />