![Chart showing weekly U.S. rail traffic statistics](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/TRN_AAR_Stats_0317.jpg)
WASHINGTON — For the second week in a row, U.S. railroads saw in increase in both carload and intermodal traffic compared with the same week a year earlier, according to the latest figures from the Association of American Railroads.
Statistics for the week ending March 13 show U.S. railroads moving 230,684 total carloads, a 2.1% increase over 2020 fitgures, while the 290,052 intermodal trailers and containers represent a 22.4% increase. Combined, the total of 520,746 carloads and intermodal units represents a 12.5% increase over 2020. Carload traffic was up in six of 10 commodities, led by grain (up 19.8%) and coal (up 15.8%).
For the year to date, total traffic of 4.98 million carloads and intermodal units represents a 2.7% increase over 10-week totals in 2020. Intermodal traffic is up 9.9% while carloads are down 4.9%.
Totals for 12 reporting railroads in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico show 333,556 carloads, down 0.2% from the same week in 2020, while the 381,119 intermodal units represent a 21.5% increase. The combined traffic of 714,675 carloads is a 10.3% increase. In Canada, carloads were down 2.6% and intermodal traffic was up 22.9%
The previous commenters must not realize that Trains is just passing on updates from AAR, and it’s that data that just compares to last year. If you look at the data on the AAR website it’s in exactly the same form as what is in the Newswire. Here is the AAR link: https://www.aar.org/data-center/rail-traffic-data/#!
Perhaps a 3 or 5 year average…for a better view of long term trends
Given that last year at this time was weird, it would be nice if Trains staff could look in their archives and look at comparisons to 2019 which was a more normal year