Intermodal Rail Volume Rises 1% For Week

Weekly U.S. intermodal rail traffic rose 1% from the same period last year, the Association of American Railroads reported.

Intermodal traffic for the week ended Oct. 17 increased to 275,149 compared with the same week last year, AAR said Oct. 21 in its weekly report. The increase follows a 0.5% rise the prior week.

Rail carload volume for the week, which excludes intermodal units, dropped 5.9% year-over-year to 279,547 carloads.

Five of the 10 commodity groups AAR tracks increased for the week from the same time last year, including grain at 16.7% and miscellaneous carloads at 15.1%.

Total North American intermodal volume rose 1.5% to 347,075 units for the week. Canadian railroads moved 58,859 intermodal units, a 6% increase. Railroads in Mexico moved 13,067 intermodal containers, a 5.4% decline, according to AAR.

For the first 41 weeks of the year, U.S. intermodal traffic increased 2.4% to 11 million units from the same period in 2014.