By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic rose 7.4% last week, powered by strong grain shipments and intermodal volume in the U.S. and Canada, data from the Association of American Railroads showed.

Carload volume rose 0.4% for the week ended Jan. 23 on a dozen reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads, as a 30.9% rise in grain carloads more than offset declines in most other categories, while intermodal traffic jumped 14.4%, the trade group said Wednesday.

In the week ended Jan. 16, North American rail traffic increased 8.6%. For the first three weeks of the year, North American rail traffic is up 6.3%.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic rose 9% last week, as a 17.8% increase in the volume of intermodal containers and trailers more than offset a 0.7% decline in carloads. U.S. rail traffic is up 6.5% for the first three weeks of the year.

Canadian rail traffic rose 4.2% last week, with carloads up 1.6% and intermodal volume up 7.2%. Canadian rail traffic is up 8.8% for the first three weeks of the year.

Mexican rail traffic rose 1% last week, as a 8.4% increase in carloads more than offset a 5.9% drop in intermodal units, the AAR said. Mexican rail traffic is down 4.8% for the first three weeks of the year.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-27-21 1338ET