The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported on February 3 that weekly rail traffic was up over 2010 levels for the week ending Jan. 29, 2011, with U.S. railroads originating 291,147 carloads, up 4.7 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 222,742 trailers and containers, up 9.2 percent compared with the same week in 2010, with container volume up 10.1 percent and trailer volume up 4.4 percent.
Weekly carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 2.4 percent compared with last year. In the West, weekly carload volume was up 6.2 percent compared with the same week in 2010.
For the first four weeks of 2011, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 1,142,293 carloads, up 8 percent from last year, and 863,099 trailers and containers, up 7.4 percent from the same point in 2010.
The full press release is available at AAR.org.