AAR traffic report: Carloads climbed for all North American roads in 15th week

For the week ending April 12, U.S. railroads originated 295,294 carloads, up 7.2 percent, and 264,382 intermodal units, up 9.3 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total combined U.S. weekly rail traffic rose 8.2 percent to 559,676 units as eight of 10 carload commodity groups posted gains, led by grain at 21.7 percent and coal at 11.2 percent. The only decliners were metallic ores/metals at 3.9 percent and forest products at 1.5 percent.

Canadian railroads reported weekly carloads totaling 78,691, down 4.5 percent, and intermodal volume totaling 58,993 units, up 9.7 percent year over year. Mexican railroads' weekly carloads increased 1.5 percent to 15,440 units but their intermodal volume declined 4.1 percent to 9,686 units.

Through 2014's first 15 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 5,513,285 carloads, down 0.1 percent, and 4,658,282 containers and trailers, up 4.3 percent compared with the same 2013 period.