Weekly US railroad freight traffic stood at 291,147 carloads for the week ending 29 January, up 4.7% compared with the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.
Intermodal volume for the week totalled 222,742 trailers and containers, an increase of 9.2% compared with the same week a year ago, with container volume up 10.1% and trailer volume up 4.4%.
Weekly carload volume on eastern railroads was up 2.4%, while in the west, carload volume was up 6.2%.
For the first four weeks of 2011, US railroads reported cumulative volume of 1,142,293 carloads, up 8% from last year, and 863,099 trailers and containers, up 7.4%.
Canadian railroads reported a volume of 71,382 cars for the week, up 3.6% from 2010, and 45,694 trailers and containers, up 6.6% from 2010.
Combined North American rail volume for the first four weeks of 2011 on 13 US, Canadian and Mexican railroads totalled 1,478,891 carloads, up 6% from last year, and 1,068,917 trailers and containers, up 6.5%.
