The Association of American Railroads has revealed that US railroad freight traffic stood at 286,391 carloads for the week ending 11 December 2010, a 10.2% rise compared with the same week last year.
Intermodal traffic for the week totalled 233,935 trailers and containers, up 14.1% compared with the same week a year ago, with container volume up 15.9% and trailer volume up 6.4%.
Carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 0.7%, while in the West, carload volume was up 16.9%.
For the first 49 weeks of 2010, US railroads reported a cumulative volume of 14,052,248 carloads, up 7.1% from last year, and 10,718,006 trailers or containers, up 14.3% from the comparison week in 2009.
Canadian railroads reported a cumulative volume of 3,590,915 carloads for the week, up 17% from last year, and 2,325,853 trailers or containers, up 15.8% from last year, while Mexican railroads reported 674,540 carloads, up 18.6%, and 335,515 trailers or containers, up 23%.
Combined North American rail volumes for the first 49 weeks of 2010 on 13 reporting US, Canadian and Mexican railroads totalled 18,317,703 carloads, up 9.3% from last year, and 13,379,374 trailers and containers, up 14.8% from last year.
