U.S. railroadsÆ intermodal volumes up 1.9% in October
The Association of American Railroads Thursday reported that intermodal traffic on U.S. railroads rose 1.9 percent in October to 1 million trailers and containers.
Carload volume, which does not include intermodal traffic, increased 1.8 percent to 1.36 million cars. Nine of the 19 major commodity categories tracked by the AAR saw U.S. carload increases in the month including coal (up 7.3 percent to 571,404 carloads), grain (up 6.8 percent to 96,057 carloads), and chemicals (up 2.6 percent to 114,387 carloads).
Commodities showing carload decreases in October included motor vehicles and equipment (down 9.5 percent to 85,362 carloads); stone, clay, and glass products (down 11.1 percent to 38,389 carloads); and lumber and wood products (down 18.9 percent to 18,570 carloads).
For the year to date, U.S. intermodal traffic increased 5.9 percent to 10.2 million units while carloads were up 1.4 percent to 14.5 million.
'Coal and intermodal continue to post strong volume gains — the top five coal months in history have all occurred since May of this year, and the top 10 intermodal weeks ever have all occurred since the end of July of this year,' said Craig F. Rockey, AAR vice president.
Canadian intermodal traffic was up 3.6 percent in October to 194,978 units, and up 5.6 percent for the first 10 months of 2006 to 1.96 million units. Canada's rail carload traffic was down 3.5 percent in October to 302,504 carloads, and down 1.3 percent for the year to date to 3.2 million carloads.