For North American Rail Traffic, a Positive Start to 2026
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 Jan. 3, 2026, had most of its days in 2025, so it is assigned to 2025. Because of the way the calendar fell in 2025, the week ending Jan. 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. The first week of 2026 ended Jan. 10.
For the week ending Jan. 10, 2026, North American rail volume on nine reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads came in at 696,484 carloads and intermodal containers and trailers. Cumulative volume in the U.S. was 510,457 carloads and intermodal units, up 9.7% from the same point in 2025; in Mexico, 27,802 carloads and intermodal units, up 53%; and in Canada, 158,225 carloads and intermodal units, down 2.8%.
For the first week of 2026 (ending Jan. 10), U.S. Class I railroads carried 232,803 carloads, up 16.7% compared with the same week in 2025, and 277,654 containers and trailers, up 4.4% percent compared with 2025, according to the AAR.
Nine of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2025. They included coal, up 14,178 carloads, to 66,374; nonmetallic minerals, up 6,539 carloads, to 28,766; and grain, up 4,956 carloads, to 26,204. One commodity group posted a decline: forest products, down 748 carloads, to 7,838.
North American rail volume for the week ending Jan. 10, 2026, on nine reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads totaled 333,712 carloads, up 11.1% from the same week last year, and 362,772 intermodal units, up 4.8% from last year.
Canadian railroads reported 87,561 carloads for the week ending Jan. 10, 2026, down 4.2%, and 70,664 intermodal units, down 1.0% compared with the same week in 2025.
Mexican railroads reported 13,348 carloads for the week ending Jan. 10, 2026, up 41.5% from the same week last year, and 14,454 intermodal units, up 65.5%.
