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U.S. railroads’ traffic winning streak has reached four weeks. During the week ending March 20, their carloads rose 4.3 percent to 287,639 units and intermodal volume increased 9.5 percent to 210,300 units compared with figures from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR). Total volume rose 5.4 percent to an estimated at 31.3 billion ton-miles as 16 of 19 carload commodity groups posted gains.

During the past four weeks, U.S. railroads’ coal volumes have surpassed fourth-quarter 2009 levels by about 3 percent, said Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. analysts in their weekly “Rail Flash” report.

“Positives include improving industrial production outlook and emerging export coal trends,” they wrote.
 
Meanwhile, Canadian railroads reported weekly volume of 74,225 carloads, up 21.1 percent, and 45,000 containers and trailers, up 12.8 percent year over year. Mexican railroads’ weekly carloads jumped 18.4 percent to 12,718 units and intermodal volume soared 45.3 percent to 5,907 units.

For more AAR data on North American railroads’ traffic for the week ending March 20 and through 2010’s fist 11 weeks, follow this link.