September 23, 2005 5:00 PM, EDT

Rail, Intermodal Traffic Spike to Weekly Records

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.S. railroad freight traffic set new records for the week ended Sept. 17, the Association of American Railroads said.

Total volume of an estimated 34.6 billion ton-miles broke the previous record of 33.8 billion set during the week ended July 30, AAR said in its weekly report.

Intermodal volume of 244,897 trailers or containers broke the previous record of 238,961 set during the week ended Nov. 20, 2004.

Ton-miles were up 4.2% from the same week last year, while intermodal was 6.9% above last year, the group said.

Railroad volume is considered an important economic indicator. Intermodal traffic, which tends to be higher-valued merchandise than bulk commodities, uses trains for the long haul and trucks for the shorter distance at either end of the trip.