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U.S. railroads' long-standing mixed traffic results held true for most of January. For the week ending Jan. 26, their originated carloads dipped 6.3 percent to 265,839 units and intermodal volume rose 1.6 percent to 238,789 units compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Ten of 20 carload commodity groups posted gains, led by petroleum products, 56 percent; farm products excluding grain, 16.9 percent; and primary forest products, 12 percent. Metallic ores volume fell 20.4 percent, iron and steel scrap carloads dropped 16.8 percent and coal traffic declined 14.6 percent.

Canadian railroads reported 75,764 carloads for the week, up 0.5 percent year over year. Their intermodal volume climbed 11 percent to 52,028 containers and trailers. For the week ending Jan. 26, Mexican railroads reported 15,394 carloads, up 10.5 percent, and 9,709 containers and trailers, down 2.3 percent.

Through 2013's first four weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 1,415,235 carloads, down 4.7 percent, and 1,154,614 containers and trailers, up 5.1 percent compared with the same 2012 period.