AAR: U.S., Canadian rail traffic rose in July's first week

For the week ending July 8, U.S. railroads registered 453,080 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.4 percent compared with total volume from the same week last year, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data. Both comparative weeks included the July 4 holiday.

U.S. carloads in the period totaled 229,501 units, up 1.1 percent, while intermodal volume totaled 223,579 containers and trailers, up 3.7 percent.

Only three of the 10 carload commodity groups tracked by the AAR posted gains in the week: nonmetallic minerals at 17.3 percent, coal at 5.7 percent and chemicals at 4.4 percent. Commodity groups that posted the largest year-over-year declines included petroleum and petroleum products at 19 percent and grain at 13.3 percent.

Through 2017's first 27 weeks, U.S. railroads tallied 6,928,954 carloads, up 6.2 percent, and 7,116,252 intermodal units, up 2.7 percent compared with the same 2016 period. Total combined U.S. traffic rose 4.4 percent to 14,045,206 units.

Meanwhile, Canadian railroads for the week ending July 8 reported 70,901 carloads, up 6.1 percent, and 62,860 intermodal units, up 7.3 percent compared with the same week in 2016. Through 27 weeks, their cumulative volume climbed 11.6 percent to 3,843,482 units.

Mexican railroads' weekly carloads dipped 0.8 percent to 15,188 units, while their weekly intermodal volume tumbled 12.5 percent to 10,132 units. Their cumulative volume through 27 weeks decreased 1.6 percent year over year to 726,772 units.

On a North American basis for the week ending July 8 — per data from 13 reporting railroads — carloads ratcheted up 2.1 percent to 315,590 units and intermodal volume rose 3.8 percent to 296,571 units compared with the same 2016 period. North American volume through 27 weeks totaled 18,615,460 carloads and intermodal units, up 5.6 percent.