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Rail News Home Rail Industry Trends

1/9/2025



Rail News: Rail Industry Trends

Intermodal lifts U.S. freight-rail traffic in 2025's first week


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U.S. railroads hauled 421,410 carloads and intermodal units in the week ending Jan. 4, a 1% increase compared to traffic levels in the same week a year ago, according to Association of American Railroads data.

The U.S. railroads logged 198,500 carloads, down 4.6%, and 222,910 containers and trailers, up 6.6%.

Four of the 10 carload commodity groups that AAR tracks every week posted an increase. They included chemicals, up 9.2% to 31,747 carloads; petroleum and petroleum products, up 9.3% to 10,852; and forest products, up 2% to 8,006.

Commodity groups that posted decreases during the week included coal, down 8.2% to 56,471 carloads; motor vehicles and parts, down 31.7% to 6,448; and metallic ores and metals, down 12.2% to 17,631.

Meanwhile, Canadian railroads hauled 80,417 carloads for the week, a decrease of 6.1%, and 61,767 intermodal units, a 3.8% increase. Canadian railroads' cumulative volume for the period was 142,184 carloads, containers and trailers, down 2%.

Mexican railroads reported 10,909 carloads, down 7.8%, and 8,265 intermodal units, down 16.8%, for the week. Mexican railroads' cumulative traffic for the week amounted to 19,174 carloads and intermodal units, down 11.9%.

North American rail traffic volume on nine reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 289,826 carloads, down 5.1%, and 292,942 intermodal units, up 5.2%. Combined, total weekly freight-rail traffic in North America was 582,768 carloads and intermodal units, down 0.2%.



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