Weekly rail traffic on U.S. railroads continued to strengthen, to 526,970 carloads and intermodal units for the week ending May 13, a gain of 5.7% from the same week in 2016.
Overall traffic totaled 255,361 carloads, up 7%, while intermodal volume was 271,609 containers and trailers, ahead 4.4% from a year ago, according to data from the Association of American Railroads.
Nine of 10 tracked commodity groups were gainers on-year led by grain, 26.3% to 23,256 carloads; coal, 14.5% to 74,290 carloads, and nonmetallic minerals, 6.5% to 38,167 carloads. Petroleum and petroleum products slid 20.1% to 9,387 carloads.
For the first 19 weeks of 2017, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 4,853,945 carloads, up 6.5% from the same period a year ago, and 4,975,413 intermodal units, up 1.8%. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 19 weeks was 9,829,358 carloads and intermodal units, an increase of 4%.
North American rail volume for the week ending May 13 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 349,305 carloads, a gain of 9% and 351,731 intermodal units, ahead 6.7%. Total combined weekly rail traffic reached 701,036 carloads and intermodal units, ahead by 7.8%. Rail volume for the first 19 weeks of this year totaled 13,026,065 carloads and intermodal units, up 5.1% compared with 2016.
Canadian railroads reported 78,046 carloads for the week, up 20.4% and 68,038 intermodal units, up 17.6% compared with the same week in 2016. For the first 19 weeks of 2017, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 2,698,147 carloads, containers and trailers, 10.7% better.
Mexican railroads tallied 15,898 carloads for the week, off 6.1% on-year while posting 12,084 intermodal units, a gain of 2.1%. Cumulative volume for the first 19 weeks of this year was 498,560 carloads and intermodal containers and trailers, a drop of 2.2% from the same period a year ago.