U.S., Canadian railroads marked traffic gains in year's 33rd week

For the week ending Aug. 16, U.S. railroads reported 304,276 carloads, up 2.8 percent, and 270,316 intermodal units, up 5.4 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total combined U.S. traffic rose 4 percent to 574,592 units and nine of 10 carload commodity groups posted gains, led by petroleum and petroleum products at 19.5 percent, metallic ores and metals at 11.6 percent, nonmetallic minerals at 7.4 percent and grain at 7.1 percent. Only coal volume fell, tumbling 3.3 percent.

Through 2014’s first 33 weeks, U.S. railroads reported 9,526,136 carloads, up 3.7 percent, and 8,465,069 containers and trailers, up 5.8 percent year over year.

For the week ending Aug. 16, Canadian railroads reported 81,707 carloads, up 4.4 percent, and 62,175 intermodal units, up 10.1 percent. Mexican railroads’ weekly carloads dipped 2.9 percent to 16,375 units and their intermodal volume declined 1.1 percent to 11,490 units.

Through 33 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 12,647,545 carloads, up 3.2 percent, and 10,668,018 containers and trailers, up 5.9 percent compared with the same 2013 period.