U.S. rail traffic returned to mixed-bag trend, AAR says

U.S. rail traffic returned to its mostly year-long trend of mixed results in the week ending July 13, when railroads originated 277,132 carloads, down 3.1 percent, and 248,201 intermodal loads, up 0.9 percent compared with volumes from the same week in 2012, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total U.S. traffic for the week dipped 1.3 percent to 525,333 units. Six of 10 carload commodity groups posted gains, led by petroleum and petroleum products at 19.7 percent, while large decliners included motor vehicles/parts at 19.3 percent and grain at 10.9 percent.

For the week ending July 13, Canadian railroads reported 74,961 carloads, down 2.7 percent, and 54,453 intermodal units, up 0.3 percent year over year. Mexican railroads' weekly carloads rose 3.9 percent to 15,620, but their intermodal volume fell 5.3 percent to 10,235 units.

Through 2013's first 28 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 10,350,313 carloads, down 0.4 percent, and 8,457,253 containers and trailers, up 3.5 percent compared with the same 2012 period.