AAR: U.S. carloads climbed, intermodal units fell again in week No. 6

U.S. carloads increased, but intermodal volume slipped again in February’s second full week. For the period ending Feb. 14, U.S. railroads reported 288,959 carloads and 236,265 intermodal loads, up 6.7 percent and down 0.1 percent, respectively, compared with totals from the same week in 2014, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total U.S. traffic clocked in at 525,224 units, up 3.5 percent, and all 10 carload commodity groups posted gains, led by grain at 21.5 percent, nonmetallic minerals at 17.9 percent and chemicals at 9.3 percent.
 
Through 2015's first six weeks, U.S. railroads logged 1,723,449 carloads, up 5.7 percent compared with the same 2014 period. But their intermodal volume was flat at 1,479,247 units.

For the week ending Feb. 14, Canadian railroads reported 76,871 carloads, up 7.8 percent, and 60,512 intermodal units, up 9.5 percent year over year. Mexican railroads’ weekly carloads rose 2.2 percent to 15,574 units and their intermodal volume climbed 8.2 percent to 10,633 units.

Through six weeks, Canadian railroads’ cumulative traffic grew 11.1 percent to 818,816 units and Mexican railroads’ cumulative volume increased 3.5 percent to 159,199 units. Thirteen reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads in the period registered a combined traffic figure of 4,180,711 units, up 4.5 percent year over year.