North American railroads netted traffic gains in Week 14

For the week ending April 5, U.S. railroads registered 296,039 carloads, up 5.4 percent, and 261,084 intermodal loads, up 12.6 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total combined traffic climbed 8.7 percent to 557,123 units and nine of 10 carload commodity groups posted gains, led by grain at 16.8 percent and petroleum/petroleum products at 11 percent. Only forest products traffic registered a decline, and a small one at that: 0.7 percent.

Broad-based traffic growth in Week 14 was led by agricultural products, autos, chemicals and coal, said Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. analysts in their "Rail Flash" report. Maritime management company T. Parker Host expects April to be a heavy coal export month after March exports were hindered by bad weather, they said, adding that six ships in early April were waiting to be loaded at the Port of Virginia.

For the week ending April 5, Canadian railroads reported 76,662 carloads, down 6.5 percent, and 58,425 intermodal units, up 12.4 percent. Mexican railroads' carloads ratcheted up 1.3 percent to 15,755 units and their intermodal volume rose 3.6 percent to 9,802 units.

Through 14 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 5,123,860 carloads, down 0.5 percent, and 4,325,221 containers and trailers, up 4 percent compared with the same 2013 period.