AAR: U.S. intermodal volume up, carloads down in year's 51st week

For the week ending Dec. 21, U.S. railroads reported 289,528 carloads, down 0.3 percent, and 255,456 intermodal loads, up 6.4 percent compared with volumes from same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total combined U.S. weekly rail traffic rose 2.8 percent to 544,984 units. Five of 10 carload commodity groups posted gains, including petroleum and petroleum products (12.7 percent), and grain (5 percent). Metallic ores and metals traffic dipped 6.5 percent and coal volume fell 2.9 percent.

For the year's 51st week, Canadian railroads reported carloads totaling 74,227, down 7 percent, and intermodal volume totaling 50,673 units, up 2.5 percent. Mexican carloads increased 4.2 percent to 15,714 units and intermodal volume rose 3.6 percent to 9,523 units.

Through 51 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 19,179,262 carloads, up 0.1 percent, and 15,925,052 containers and trailers, up 4.3 percent compared with the same 2012 period.