WASHINGTON — After two weeks in which weekly U.S. rail traffic numbers showed major swings because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the latest numbers are back to normal — which is to say, showing a nominal overall increase.
Statistics from the Association of American Railroads for the week ending Dec. 7 show U.S. railroads moved 520,894 carloads and intermodal units, a 4.4% increase from the same week in 2023. That includes 224,899 carloads, down 1.8%, and 295,995 containers and trailers, up 9.7%.
Those figures come after a week that saw a 25.6% increase in traffic [see “Weekly U.S. rail traffic shows major bump,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 27, 2024] followed by one with a 13.8% decline [see “Holiday leads to drop …,” News Wire, Dec. 5, 2024]. Where Thanksgiving fell in the calendar, compared to the previous year, influenced both those sets of statistics.
Through 49 weeks of 2024, carload traffic is down 3.1% while intermodal volume is up 6.8%, creating an overall gain of 3.3% compared to the same period a year ago.
North American volume, from nine reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads, includes 331,101 carloads, down 2.6% from the corresponding week in 2023, and 379,058 intermodal units, up 6.8%. That makes for a 2.2% gain over the same week last year, and a 2.3% increase for the year to date. In Canada, year-to-date traffic is down 0.9%; in Mexico, it is up 3.3%.
