U.S. freight railroads originated 1,196,432 carloads in October 2010, an average of 299,108 carloads per week. That’s up 8.7% from October 2009 and down 7.9% from October 2008 on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. The two highest carload weeks in October were the third- and fourth-highest weeks for carloads so far in 2010.
October 2010’s average weekly carloads were slightly higher than September 2010’s, making October 2010 the new highest-volume month since October 2008. However, if Labor Day week were excluded, September 2010 would have been slightly higher than October 2010.
That helps explain why, on a seasonally adjusted basis, U.S. rail carloads were down 0.5% in October 2010 from September 2010.
The real souce of strength has been intermodal traffic which increaed 14% year over year in October.
excellent post on rail traffic
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