Intermodal Hits New 2010 High

Major U.S. railroads set a new 2010 peak for intermodal shipments in the week ending Aug. 21, the second straight week of new highs in container and trailer loadings.

The Association of American Railroads said the 236,404 intermodal shipments -- originated by the five U.S.-owned Class I carriers and some large regional rail lines that report their totals to the trade group - was up 22.4 percent from the same week last year.

And it was even up 2.6 percent from the 2008 week, meaning that intermodal traffic is running so strong that it has made up the losses since the worst parts of the recession. The latest volume was the strongest for any week since the autumn peak period in 2008, said AAR spokeswoman Lauren Sandberg.

Most of the gain is coming from container shipments, which were up 24.2 percent from a year ago to 202,475 units. However, trailer loadings on rail flatcars continued to rise as well, in contrast to their long-term declining trend, to 33,929 units in the latest week or a 12.4 percent rise from the same week last year.

For the seven days ending Aug. 14, U.S. railroads had originated 233,767 intermodal shipments, of which 199,859 were containers and 33,908 were trailers.

So far, the industry sees little sign that the surge in box traffic on the continent's railroads has slowed.

At the Intermodal Association of North America, President and CEO Joni Casey said the momentum appears on pace to continue into this fall. "We are seeing the same thing as the AAR data shows - steady, moderate improvement in volumes for all equipment categories, expected to continue thru September at minimum," she said.

Counting Canadian and Mexican railroads, the AAR said intermodal loadings by major North American railroads rose to 294,493 units last week from 291,386 in the Aug. 14 week, and were up 22 percent from a year earlier.

Small railroads also are seeing gains in box loadings. The RMI RailConnect index that monitors most North American short lines said reporting carriers originated 7,856 intermodal loads in the Aug. 21 week, up from 7,145 a week earlier and 29 percent higher than the same week last year.

-- Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.