AAR: U.S. railroads broke one-week-old intermodal volume record

For the week ending Sept. 20, U.S. railroads reported 279,777 intermodal loads, breaking the weekly volume record of 279,052 units they just set a week earlier, according to the Association of American Railroads. On a year-over-year basis, intermodal volume rose 6.4 percent.

U.S. roads also reported 302,178 weekly carloads, up 5 percent. Total combined traffic increased 5.7 percent to 581,955 units and nine of 10 of carload commodity groups posted gains, led by petroleum and petroleum products at 26.8 percent, grain at 23.2 percent and nonmetallic minerals at 10.8 percent.

For the week, Canadian railroads reported 85,453 carloads, down 0.2 percent, and 60,870 intermodal units, up 7 percent compared with the same week last year. Mexican railroads reported 13,459 carloads, up 4.8 percent, and 10,511 intermodal units, up 2.6 percent.

Through 2014’s first 38 weeks, U.S. railroads increased carloads 3.5 percent to 11,020,960 units and boosted intermodal volume 5.7 percent to 9,802,259 units compared with the same 2013 period. Canadian railroads reported a 1.4 percent increase in carloads to 3,015,371 units and a 7.1 percent gain in intermodal volume to 2,169,836 units, while Mexican railroads' carloads ratcheted up 1.7 percent to 593,441 units and intermodal volume rose 4.3 percent to 396,140 units.

Through 38 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 14,629,772 carloads, up 3 percent, and 12,368,235 containers and trailers, up 5.9 percent compared with the same 2013 period.