Record U.S. intermodal volumes

Record U.S. intermodal volumes    U.S. railroads moved intermodal volumes of 231,255 trailers and containers during the week ended Oct. 16, a weekly record, as the intermodal business continued to outpace other rail freight sectors, according to statistics published by the Association of American Railroads.
   The previous U.S. intermodal record was 231,025 trailers and containers moved during the week ended Sept. 25.
   U.S. intermodal traffic for the week ended Oct. 16 was up 9.5 percent from the comparable week a year ago, with container volume up 10.1 percent from last year and trailer volume gaining 7.7 percent.
   During the same week, Canadian railroads handled an intermodal volume of 42,475 trailers or containers, up 5.1 percent from last year, AAR said. Mexican railroad Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana moved 4,274 originated trailers or containers during the week ended Oct. 16, up 23.2 percent from the corresponding week of 2003.
   The latest figures confirm a strong run for U.S. intermodal so far this year, despite capacity problems. In the first 41 weeks of the year, U.S. railroads handled an intermodal volume of 8.6 million trailers or containers, up 9.5 percent over the same period in 2003.
   AAR reported total volume of rail freight moved by U.S. railroads during the week ended Oct. 16 was 33.1 billion ton-miles, also a record. This broke the previous record of 32.7 billion ton-miles set just one week earlier. The latest figure also represented a 2.2 percent increase over total volume during the comparable week last year.
   Railroads reporting to the AAR account for 88 percent of U.S. carload freight and 95 percent of rail intermodal volume.