The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has reported that US railroad freight traffic stood at 274,043 carloads for the week ending 12 February 2011, a 6.2% rise compared with the same week last year.

Intermodal volume for the week totalled 228,035 trailers and containers, up 18.5% compared with the same week a year ago.

The weekly carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 21.8%, while in the West it was down 2.5% compared with 2010.

For the first six weeks of 2011 US railroads reported a cumulative volume of 1,684,457 carloads, up 6.4% from last year, and 1,290,347 trailers and containers, up 7.8% from 2010.

Canadian railroads reported a volume of 69,161 cars for the week, down by 1.1%, and 47,581 trailers and containers, up 12% from 2010.

The combined North American rail volume for the first six weeks of 2011 on 13 reporting US, Canadian and Mexican railroads totalled 2,184,554 carloads, which is a rise of 4.8% from last year, and 1,602,718 trailers and containers, up 7.2%, Railway Technology reports.