North American rail volume continues double-digit climb

THE Association of American Railroads (AAR) has reported weekly rail traffic continues to set records with US rail operators posting their highest numbers for 2010 in both rail carloads and intermodal volume for the week ending August 28.

Canadian railway volume hit 76,064 cars for the week, up 16.5 per cent year on year, and 53,747 trailers or containers, up 24.4 per cent from 2009. For the first 34 weeks of 2010, Canadian railways reported cumulative volume of 2,458,747 carloads, up 20.6 per cent from last year, and 1,585,669 trailers or containers, up 15.7 per cent from last year.

US railways originated 302,358 carloads for the week, up 5.8 per cent compared with the same week in 2009 and intermodal traffic totalled 237,194 trailers and containers, up 17.1 per cent from the same week in 2009.

Compared with the same week in 2009, container volume, a subset of intermodal, increased 18.1 per cent and trailer volume rose 11.4 per cent, said the report.

This is the 33 consecutive week in 2010 that intermodal volume has increased year on year, with 24 of those weeks being double-digit percentage gains. Carloads have increased in 26 out of the last 27 weeks versus the same week last year.

Fifteen of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009 with significant increases in metallic ores (62.2 per cent), metals and metal products (40.2 per cent) and farm product excluding grain (33.4 per cent).

Mexican railroads reported originated volume of 14,531 cars, up 18 per cent from the same week last year, and 8,168 trailers or containers, up 26.7 per cent.
(Source:www.schednet.com)