Freight volume for week ending Aug. 13 up from a year ago

Freight volume for week ending Aug. 13 up from a year ago    All three measures of rail freight traffic — carloads, intermodal and ton-miles — were up during the week ended August 13 in comparison with the corresponding week last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported today.   
   Carload freight for the week totaled 339,019 cars, up 1.1 percent from last year.    Carload traffic was up 3.3 percent in the East, but down 0.8 percent in the West.
   Intermodal volume, which is not included in the carload data, totaled 234,558 trailers or containers, up 7 percent from last year, with containers up 8.4 percent and trailers up 3 percent.    It was the highest volume for any week this year, and the fourth highest week ever for intermodal.
   Total volume was estimated at 33.5 billion ton-miles, up 1.8 percent from last year.
   This was the second busiest week ever for total rail freight volume.
   Twelve of 19 carload commodity groups were up from last year. Double-digit increases were reported in loadings of farm products other than grain, up 50.5 percent; nonmetallic minerals, up 19.2 percent; and grain mill products, up 12 percent. Among seven commodity groups registering declines from last year were primary forest products, down 7.2 percent, and petroleum products, off 5.6 percent.
   Cumulative volume for the first 32 weeks of 2005 totaled 10,6 million carloads, up 1.4 percent from 2004; 7 million trailers or containers, up 6.1 percent; and total volume of an estimated 1.02 trillion ton-miles, up 2.3 percent from last year.