Intermodal Rail Volume Scales New Heights

Major North American railroads racked up big intermodal numbers for the third straight week in the week ending Aug. 28 and set a new 2010 high in train loadings of containers and trailers.

The largest U.S.-owned carriers that report traffic totals to the Association of American Railroads originated 237,194 intermodal unit loads, up from 236,404 in the Aug. 21 week and 17.1 percent ahead of the same week last year.

Counting Canadian and Mexican totals that the AAR tracks, last week’s volume reached 299,109 containers and trailers, compared with 294,493 in the week ending Aug. 21 and up 18.6 percent from the 2009 week.

By The Numbers: U.S. Intermodal Shipments.

Previously, the AAR said intermodal volume earlier in August was already the highest since the autumn peak shipping period of October 2008.

Intermodal gains are mainly in rail loadings of containers – both domestic and international – which can be stacked two high for extra efficiency on many rail corridors across the continent. North American container loadings in the Aug. 28 week were up 19.7 percent from a year earlier to 262,624 units and up 17.1 percent so far in 2010.

But railroads are recently seeing solid increases as well in trailers that are loaded singly onto railroad flatcars, after that traffic was weak earlier in 2010. Major North American carriers loaded 36,485 trailers in the latest week for an 11.1 percent gain from a year earlier; year-to-date trailer hauls are up just 1.7 percent.

Contact John Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.