advertisement

---

During the week of Oct. 4, U.S. railroads just missed posting a second-straight weekly intermodal-traffic record, according to Association of American Railroads data released Oct. 9. The roads moved 209,757 trailers and containers — just 342 fewer than their all-time high of 210,099 trailers and containers moved during the week of Sept. 27.

However, the most recent weekly volume increased 57.1 percent compared with the same 2002 period, when West Coast ports were idled by a labor dispute.

During the year's first 40 weeks, U.S. roads moved 7,565,063 trailers and containers, a 6 percent increase compared with a similar 2002 period.

Intermodal now has overtaken coal as the top revenue source for major U.S. and Canadian railroads, said AAR, which expects intermodal traffic to continue to steadily increase.