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Flooding in the Upper Midwest, the ongoing recession and the Good Friday holiday turned out to be a bad combination last week for U.S. railroads. Their carloads totaling 248,391 units plunged 24.5 percent and intermodal volume totaling 178,283 units plummeted 21.6 percent compared with data from the same week in 2008, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Weekly traffic totals were worse north and south of the U.S. border. During the week ending April 11, Canadian railroads originated 56,493 carloads and 37,544 intermodal loads, down 28.3 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively, vs. totals from the same week last year. Mexican railroads’ originated carloads dropped 29.6 percent to 8,418 units and intermodal volume fell 39.3 percent to 3,705 units.

For more information on North American railroads’ week No. 14 and year-to-date traffic tallies, follow this link.