Freight traffic on U.S. railroads was down slightly in comparison to last year during the week ended July 7, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) has reported. Both weeks included the July 4th holiday.

Total volume was estimated at 29.6 billion ton-miles, down 2.3 percent from the corresponding week last year. Intermodal volume totaled 192,516 trailers or containers, down 0.7 percent from last year, with container volume up 1.4 percent and trailer volume down 7.9 percent.

Carload freight, which doesn't include the intermodal data, totaled 282,888 cars for the week, down 3.6 percent from last year. Loadings were down 3.3 percent in the East and 3.9 percent in the West.

Cumulative volume for the first 27 weeks of 2007 totaled 8,714,282 carloads, down 4.1 percent from 2006; 6,144,891 trailers or containers, off 1.3 percent; and total volume of an estimated 887.5 billion ton-miles, down 2.8 percent from last year.

On Canadian railroads, during the week ended July 7 carload traffic totaled 72,130 cars, down 1.0 percent from last year while intermodal volume totaled 43,828 trailers or containers, up 3.1 percent from last year.

The AAR also reported that carload freight on the Mexican railroad Kansas City Southern de Mexico (KCSM) during the week ended July 7 totaled 10,433 cars, down 8.3 percent from last year. KCSM reported intermodal volume of 4,007 trailers or containers, up 17.7 percent from the 27th week of 2006.