Intermodal Traffic Reaches New High

Last week, intermodal traffic was up 21.2 percent from last year to 227,985 trailers and containers, a level not reached since November 2008

, according to the Association of American Railroads. However, intermodal traffic is still 0.2 percent lower than the same week in 2008.

Compared with the same week in 2009, container volume increased 23.2 percent, while trailer volume rose 10.5 percent. Compared with the same week in 2008, container volume was up 8.8 percent, while trailer volume fell 32.8 percent.

The U.S. railroads originated 284,913 carloads during the week ended June 19, up 9.2 percent from the comparable week in 2009, but down 10 percent from 2008. The East saw carload volume up 12.2 percent from last year, while in the West, carload volume gained 7.2 percent.

Year to date, carload volume was at 6.8 million, up 7.2 percent from 2009, but down 13.4 percent from 2008; trailers or containers were at about 5 million, a gain of 11.7 percent from 2009, but down 7.3 percent from 2008.