AAR: North American rail traffic gains continued in year's 51st week

For the week ending Dec. 20, U.S. railroads reported 307,598 carloads, up 6 percent, and 272,961 intermodal loads, up 6.8 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total combined traffic rose 6.4 percent to 580,559 units and seven of 10 carload commodity groups posted gains for the week, led by grain at 19.9 percent and nonmetallic minerals at 18.6 percent. Carloads of farm products, excluding grain and food, fell 8.5 percent.

Through 2014’s first 51 weeks, U.S. railroads logged 14,924,384 carloads, up 3.8 percent, and 13,315,584 intermodal units, up 5.2 percent year over year.

For the week ending Dec. 20, Canadian railroads reported 85,744 carloads, up 15.6 percent, and 61,340 intermodal units, up 21.2 percent. Mexican railroads’ weekly carloads increased 2 percent to 16,028 carloads and their intermodal volume climbed 15 percent to 10,950 units.

Through 51 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 19,856,118 carloads, up 3.5 percent, and 16,788,381 containers and trailers, up 5.4 percent compared with the same 2013 period.