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Yesterday, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (GWI) reported August traffic volume of 87,383 carloads, up 15.7 percent compared with August 2010 volume. Excluding carloads from Australia’s FreightLink, which GWI acquired in December 2010, same-railroad traffic rose 6.1 percent in August.

Company officials attribute the gains to strong coal and coke traffic (up 7.5 percent), primarily in the New York/Ohio/Pennsylvania and Mountain West regions, and healthy farm and food products traffic (up 11.8 percent), primarily in the Australia and Illinois Regions, according to a prepared statement. In addition, autos and auto parts traffic jumped 33.3 percent, metals traffic climbed 10.5 percent and chemicals/plastics traffic increased 7.5 percent.

GWI owns and operates 64 regionals and short lines in the United States, Australia, Canada, Netherlands and Belgium.

Meanwhile, RailAmerica Inc. yesterday reported August traffic volume of 72,697 carloads, down 0.3 percent compared with August 2010 volume. On a same-railroad basis, carloads declined 0.8 percent.

“Lower coal shipments [down 15.8 percent] were the main reason for the decline. Coal carloads primarily reflect decreased shipments due to source shifts affecting the Indiana Southern Railroad,” RailAmerica officials said in a prepared statement. “Excluding coal, carloads were up 3.9 percent.”

In addition, petroleum traffic dipped 8.5 percent, agricultural products volume fell 6 percent, and metallic ores and metals traffic decreased 5.7 percent. Among the seven out of 12 commodity groups that registered gains were motor vehicles (26 percent), forest products (16.9 percent), food or kindred products (14.5 percent) and pulp/paper/allied products (13.2 percent).

RailAmerica owns and operates 43 regionals and short lines in the United States and Canada.