The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending January 3, 2026.
For the week, total originated U.S. rail traffic was 404,293 carloads and intermodal units, down 4.0 percent from the comparable year-earlier week, which in this case is week 1 of 2025. [Editor’s note: For rail traffic purposes, a week that bridges two different years is assigned to the year in which most of the days of that week fall. The week ending January 3, 2026, had most of its days in 2025, so it is assigned to 2025. Because the calendar fell in 2025, the week ending January 3, 2026, was week 53 of 2025. A year having 53 weeks happens every few years. Rail traffic comparisons are always made to the corresponding period 52 weeks earlier. This means the comparison week for a week 53 is week 1 of the same year. To ensure comparability across years, week 53 is ignored when computing annual totals. Instead, annual totals are always weeks 1-52.]
Total U.S. carloads for the week ending January 3, 2026, were 192,665 carloads, down 2.8 percent from the comparison week, while U.S. intermodal volume for the week was 211,628 containers and trailers, down 5.1 percent from the comparison week.
For U.S. railroads for the week ending January 3, two of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the comparison week. These two were chemicals, up 734 carloads to 32,493, and grain, up 195 carloads to 21,022. Commodity groups that posted decreases from the comparison week included nonmetallic minerals, down 1,393 carloads to 21,565; miscellaneous carloads, down 1,238 carloads to 5,734; and farm products excluding grain and food, down 769 carloads to 15,694.
For all of 2025 (defined as weeks 1-52), U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 11,508,797 carloads, up 1.5 percent over 2024; and 14,055,633 intermodal units, also up 1.5 percent over 2024. Total combined U.S. traffic for 2025 was 25,564,430 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.5 percent over 2024.
North American rail volume for the week ending January 3, 2026, on 9 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads totaled 279,924 carloads, down 2.9 percent from the comparison week, and 277,628 intermodal units, down 4.9 percent. Total combined rail traffic in North America for the week ending January 3 was 557,552 carloads and intermodal units, down 3.9 percent. North American rail volume for weeks 1-52 of 2025 was 35,187,052 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.4 percent over 2024.
Canadian railroads reported 78,588 carloads for the week, down 2.3 percent from the comparison week, and 55,805 intermodal units, down 9.7 percent. For all of 2025, Canadian railroads reported cumulative rail traffic volume of 8,387,041 carloads, containers, and trailers, up 2.0 percent over 2024.
Mexican railroads reported 8,671 carloads for the week, down 10.7 percent from the comparison week, and 10,195 intermodal units, up 43.1 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for 2025 was 1,235,581 carloads and intermodal containers and trailers, down 5.5 percent from 2024.
