AAR traffic report: Railroads got off to a good start in December

For the week ending Dec. 6, U.S. railroads logged 311,955 carloads, up 11.7 percent, and 268,153 intermodal units, up 2.1 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Total combined U.S. traffic climbed 7 percent to 580,108 units and eight of 10 carload commodity groups posted gains, led by grain at 25.5 percent, nonmetallic minerals at 17 percent, and metallic ores and metals at 14.8 percent.

Through 2014’s first 49 weeks, U.S. railroads handled 14,304,515 carloads and 12,762,286 intermodal loads, up 3.6 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, year over year.

For the week ending Dec. 6, Canadian railroads reported 83,467 carloads, up 9 percent, and 55,992 intermodal units, up 2.9 percent. Mexican railroads’ carloads increased 3.3 percent to 15,786 units and their intermodal volume rose 2 percent to 10,593 units.

Through 49 weeks, Canadian carloads ratcheted up 1.9 percent to 3,958,263 units and intermodal volume climbed 6 percent to 2,805,257 units, while Mexican carloads increased 3.1 percent to 774,127 units and intermodal volume rose 5.5 percent to 524,897 units.

Combined North American rail volume through 49 weeks shows 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads registered 19,036,905 carloads, up 3.2 percent, and 16,092,440 intermodal units, up 5.3 percent compared with the same 2013 period.