Rail Traffic Continues to Improve This Year vs. 2009

From this week's report from the American Association of Railroads:

1. Rail carload volume increased by 5.1% in the week ending September 11 (week 36) compared to the same week last year (see chart above).

2. Intermodal traffic increased up 18.1% from the same week in 2009 (see chart above), which was also the 9th straight week of a double-digit gain above 17%.   

3. This marks the 35th straight week of improvements in intermodal rail traffic compared to the same week in 2009. Except for a holiday-related decline in July, carload volume has increased for the last 29 weeks compared to the same week last year.

4. For the first 36 weeks of 2010, cumulative carload volume on U.S. railroads is up 7 percent from 2009 and intermodal rail volume has improved by 14.5 percent from 2009.

5. For all of North America, cumulative carload volume is up by 9.9% and intermodal volume by 15.1% in 2010 compared to last year.