Carloads climbed in all three North American nations last week

For the week ending Nov. 15, U.S. railroads reported 296,655 carloads, up 0.3 percent, and 273,695 intermodal units, up 2.6 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total combined U.S. traffic increased 1.4 percent to 570,350 units. But only four of 10 carload commodity groups posted gains, led by nonmetallic minerals at 9.6 percent. Grain volume declined 3.9 percent.

Through 2014’s first 46 weeks, U.S. railroads handled 13,425,089 carloads, up 3.4 percent, and 12,003,887 intermodal units, up 5.3 percent year over year.

For the week ending Nov. 15, Canadian railroads reported 82,869 carloads, up 0.2 percent, and 56,282 intermodal units, down 0.6 percent compared with the same 2013 period. Mexican railroads’ weekly carloads shot up 68.4 percent to 26,429 units and their intermodal volume soared 56.9 percent to 16,198 units.

Through 46 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads handled 17,873,007 carloads, up 3.1 percent, and 15,138,071 containers and trailers, up 5.5 percent compared with the same 2013 period.