Intermodal Rail Traffic Rises 3.1% for Week, AAR Says
Weekly U.S. intermodal rail traffic rose 3.1% from the same period last year, the Association of American Railroads reported.
Intermodal traffic for the week ended Aug. 8 increased to 274,424 compared with the same week last year, AAR said Aug. 12 in its weekly report.
The increase follows a 0.3% dip the prior week that was the first decline since March, when problems at West Coast ports and bad weather impacted traffic.
Rail carload volume for the week, which excludes intermodal units, dropped 4.4% year-over-year to 288,460 carloads.
Five of the 10 commodity groups AAR tracks increased for the week from the same time last year, including miscellaneous carloads at 14.2% and farm products at 8.4%. For the week, petroleum and petroleum products declined 17.7% to 12,826 units.
Total North American intermodal volume increased 3.3% to 346,905 units for the week. Canadian railroads moved 60,616 intermodal units, a 3.7% increase. Railroads in Mexico moved 11,865 intermodal containers, a 4.9% rise, according to AAR.
For the first 31 weeks of the year, U.S. intermodal traffic increased 2.5% to 8.2 million units from the same period in 2014.
