AAR: Large U.S. traffic gains in week 47 due to last year's Thanksgiving

For the week ending Nov. 23, U.S. railroads registered 296,581 carloads, up 17.4 percent, and 267,759 intermodal loads, up 37.7 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads data.

However, the comparative week in 2012 included the Thanksgiving holiday, so the large year-over-year gains are a bit skewed. Total U.S. traffic climbed 26.2 percent to 564,340 units, while 10 commodity groups posted gains.

For the same week, Canadian railroads reported 81,723 carloads, up 5.6 percent, and 54,540 intermodal units, up 7.9 percent. Mexican railroads' weekly carloads rose 3.3 percent to 14,894 units, but their intermodal volume tumbled 13.4 percent to 9,143 units.

Through 2013's first 47 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 17,710,277 carloads, up 0.6 percent, and 14,676,065 containers and trailers, up 4.5 percent compared with the same 2012 period.