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For the week ending Sept. 15, U.S. railroads reported 291,530 carloads, down 2.9 percent, and 251,720 containers and trailers, up 3.9 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Only nine of 20 carload commodity groups posted increases, led by petroleum products (46.3 percent), crushed stone, sand and gravel (10.8 percent), and food and kindred products (10.3 percent). Grain carloads fell 22.7 percent, metallic ores volume dropped 21.3 percent, and waste and nonferrous scrap loads declined 19.5 percent.

For the week ending Sept. 15, Canadian railroads reported 81,564 carloads, up 4.1 percent, and 55,875 intermodal loads, up 7.4 percent year over year. Mexican railroads' carload volume rose 8.4 percent to 14,870 units and intermodal volume climbed 28 percent to 11,468 units.

Through 2012's first 37 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads originated 13,825,423 carloads, down 1.3 percent, and 10,948,416 containers and trailers, up 4.7 percent compared with the same 2011 period.