Carload traffic on U.S. freight railroads rose 4.5 percent during the week ending October 14 compared with the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported yesterday. Intermodal traffic rose 0.4 percent.

Carload freight totaled 340,114 cars, with loadings up 8.1 percent in the West and up 0.3 percent in the East.

Intermodal volume was 250,693 trailers or containers, the ninth highest total for any week in history. The corresponding week in 2005 was, at the time, the highest week in history. Container volume rose 5.1 percent for the week while trailer volume declined by 12.9 percent.
Total volume was estimated at 35.0 billion ton-miles, up 6.7 percent from 2005.

Among individual carload commodities:
• coal rose 12.2 percent to 141,835 carloads, up 15,424 carloads from last year,
• grain gained 15.1 percent (3,309 carloads) to 25,274 carloads,
• carloads of coke rose 1,399 carloads (26.7 percent) to 6,631 carloads,
• carloads of chemicals rose 4.3 percent (1,193 carloads) to 28,846 carloads,
• carloads of metallic ores fell 1,885 carloads (23.2 percent) to 6,227 carloads, and
• carloads of motor vehicles and equipment fell 1,762 carloads (7.6 percent) to 21,541.

In total, 10 of 19 commodity groups tracked by the AAR saw higher carloadings this week in 2006 than in 2005.

Cumulative volume for the first 41 weeks of 2006 totaled 13,813,153 carloads—up 1.5 percent from 2005; 9,705,062 trailers or containers—an increase of 6.0 percent; and total volume of an estimated 1.37 trillion ton-miles—up 2.8 percent from last year.