Monday 18 July 2011 

Weekly intermodal rail freight traffic in the US decreased slightly at the beginning of July, but Mexican railroads reported carrying nearly 85% more trailers and containers, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).  

During the week ending 9 July, US intermodal traffic was down 0.2% to 1952,619 trailers and containers, compared with the same week last year.

In total, US railroads transported 245,574 carloads in the week, down 3.2% compared with last year’s figures.

Weekly carload volume on eastern railroads was down 1.3% compared with last year and down 4.2% for westbound railroads.

However, for the first 27 weeks of 2011, US railroads reported carrying a cumulative volume of 7.78 million carloads, up 2.5% on last year, and 6.04 million trailers and containers, up 7.5% from the same week in 2010.

Mexico’s railroads carried 13,008 carloads for the week ending 18 June, up 14.6% compared with the same week last year, and 8,802 trailers and containers, up 84.1%.

For the first 27 weeks of the year, Mexican railroads carried 385,374 carloads, up 4.4% on last year, and 210,651 trailers and containers, up 21.5%.

Canadian railroads reported volumes of 71,793 carloads for the week, up 3% from last year, but saw the number of trailers and containers fall 5.4% to 47,026 compared with the same week in 2010.

For the first 27 weeks of 2011, Canadian railroads carried 1.99 million carloads, up 2.3% year on year, and 1.26 million trailers and containers, up 2.2%.

Combined North American rail volume for the first 27 weeks on US, Canadian and Mexican railroads totalled 10.16 million carloads, up 2.5% compared with the same point last year, and 7.52 million trailers and containers, up 6.9% compared with last year.