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Although U.S. and Canadian railroads’ automotive traffic decreased in 2005 because America’s “Big Three” automakers produced fewer cars, one foreign automotive shipper registered record North American vehicle production. Yesterday, Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Inc. announced it produced 1.55 million vehicles in 2005, an 8 percent increase compared with 2004. The company also manufactured an all-time high 1.29 million engines.

By 2008, Toyota expects to have enough North American production capacity to build 1.81 million cars and trucks, and 1.44 million engines. That’s good news for U.S. and Canadian roads, whose 2005 motor vehicle and equipment traffic dropped 2.2 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively, compared with 2004, according to Association of American Railroads data.

This year, Toyota’s Georgetown, Ky., plant will begin producing next-generation and hybrid Camrys, and the company’s Princeton, Ind., and San Antonio, Texas, plants will start manufacturing next-generation Tundra trucks. During the next two years, the automaker plans to expand facilities in San Antonio and Buffalo, W.Va., and build a plant in Woodstock, Ontario.