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Just before the July 4th holiday, U.S. railroads racked up more weekly traffic gains. During the week ending July 2, they originated 285,943 carloads, up 0.3 percent, and 236,988 intermodal loads, up 2.5 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
 
Fifteen of 20 carload commodity groups posted gains, with weekly carload volume up 5.7 percent in the East and down 3.1 percent in the West. However, coal traffic — which dropped 5 percent in the latest week and 2 percent in the second quarter — “masked underlying rail volume growth,” said Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. analysts in their weekly “Rail Flash” report.

“Supported by improved industrial volumes, carload volumes grew 4 percent year over year during the last seven weeks of the second quarter compared to just under 3 percent year-over-year growth during the first six weeks,” they said. “Powder River Basin coal volumes were impacted by recent flooding, with BNSF coal volume down 21 percent. Notably, weaker second-quarter coal volumes were impacted largely by negative year-over-year growth among Canadian rails and BNSF flooding disruptions, with more modest coal growth among other U.S. Class Is.”
 
Meanwhile, Canadian railroads reported weekly carloads totaling 74,635, up 7.6 percent, and intermodal volume totaling 47,293 containers and trailers, up 6.9 percent. Mexican railroads’ weekly carloads rose 3.9 percent to 14,154 units and intermodal volume ballooned 60.4 percent to 9,192 units.
 
Through 2011’s first 26 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads originated 9.8 million carloads, up 2.7 percent, and 7.3 million containers, up 7.1 percent year over year.

For more AAR traffic data for the week ending July 2 and through 26 weeks, follow this link.