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How bad were U.S. railroads’ traffic totals in January? Bad enough that the roads registered their third-straight record monthly decline, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

U.S. roads originated 1 million carloads, down 17.2 percent, and 788,115 intermodal loads, down 12.9 percent compared with January 2008 totals. Total volume fell 15.9 percent to an estimated 113.3 billion ton-miles.

Carloadings dropped in every major commodity category, with motor vehicles and equipment (down a whopping 63 percent), metal products (down 47.7 percent) and grain (down 27 percent) posting the largest declines.

“The severe recession is now negatively affecting every major rail market,” said AAR Senior Vice President John Gray in a prepared statement.

The month wasn’t any better for Canadian railroads. Their carloads decreased 17.5 percent to 243,031 units and intermodal volume dropped 12.3 percent to 168,576 units compared with January 2008 traffic levels.

On a combined cumulative-volume basis through 2009’s first four weeks, 12 reporting U.S. and Canadian railroads originated 1.3 million carloads, down 17.2 percent, and 956,691 containers and trailers, down 12.8 percent year over year.

In Mexico, the nation’s two largest railroads — Ferrocarril Mexicano S.A. de C.V. and Kansas City Southern de México S.A. de C.V. — had a bad January, too. Their carloads declined 15.4 percent and intermodal volume fell 23.7 percent compared with January 2008 totals.