Rail, Intermodal Traffic Fall for Week

Rail and intermodal traffic fell for the week ended Saturday compared from a year ago, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday.

Intermodal traffic fell 0.9%, AAR said in its weekly report. Container traffic fell 1.3% to 183,790 units, while trailers rose 0.6% to 49,463 units.

Overall rail carload traffic fell 1.7% for the week, to 330,208 carloads, the group said.
 
Railroad volume is considered an important economic indicator. Intermodal traffic, which tends to be higher-valued merchandise than bulk commodities, uses trains for the long haul and trucks for the shorter distance at either end of the trip.