Last week, intermodal traffic was up 20.5 percent from the same week a year ago, with trailers and containers at 227,229.
Intermodal traffic was only 1.1 percent lower than the 2008 week, according to data released by the Association of American Railroads.

Compared with the same week in 2009, container volume increased 22.1 percent and trailer volume rose 12.3 percent. Compared with the same week in 2008, container volume increased 7.7 percent and trailer volume dropped 32.2 percent.

Meanwhile, rail traffic remained steady last week, with 284,716 carloads, a 11.4 percent gain from the same week in 2009, but down 13.2 percent from 2008.

The East saw carloads up 14.5 percent from last year, while the West saw a 9.2 percent boost in carloads from last year.

For the first 25 weeks of 2010, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of about 7 million carloads, 7.4 percent higher than 2009, but 13.4 percent lower than 2008. Over that same period, the railroads reported volume of about 5.2 million trailers or containers, up 12.1 percent from 2009, but down 7 percent from 2008.