Weekly Rail Intermodal Volume Rises 5%
Weekly U.S. intermodal rail traffic rose 5% from the same period last year, the Association of American Railroads reported.
Intermodal traffic for the week ended Aug. 8 increased to 278,972 compared with the same week last year, AAR said Aug. 26 in its weekly report. The increase follows a 2.3% rise the prior week.
Rail carload volume for the week, which excludes intermodal units, dropped 3.7% year-over-year to 288,971 carloads.
Five of the 10 commodity groups AAR tracks increased for the week from the same time last year, including miscellaneous carloads at 16.4% and farm products at 7.4%. For the week, metallic ores and metals declined 17.7% to 12,826 units.
Total North American intermodal volume increased 4.7% to 354,498 units for the week. Canadian railroads moved 75,307 intermodal units, a 4.7% increase. Railroads in Mexico moved 16,398 intermodal containers, a 2.1% rise, according to AAR.
For the first 33 weeks of the year, U.S. intermodal traffic increased 2.6% to 8.8 million units from the same period in 2014.
