The Association of American Railroads has revealed that US railroad freight traffic stood at 240,073 carloads for the week ending 1 January 2011, a 5.6% rise compared with the same week last year.
Intermodal traffic for the week totalled 166,894 trailers and containers, up 11.9% compared with the same week a year ago, with container volume up 10.9% and trailer volume up 18.1%.
For the full 52 weeks of 2010, US railroads originated 14,820,128 carloads, up 7.3% from last year, and 11,282,336 trailers and containers, up 14.2% from 2009.
Carload volume on eastern railroads was up 2.5% compared with 2009, while in the west, carload volume was up 7.4%.
Canadian railroads reported a cumulative volume of 3,789,335 carloads, up 16.7% from 2009, and 2,441,518 trailers or containers, up 15.6% from 2009.
Combined North American rail volumes for 2010 on 13 reporting US, Canadian and Mexican railroads totalled 19,322,414 carloads, up 9.4% from 2009, and 14,076,432 trailers and containers, up 14.7% from 2009.
