Two weeks into 2010, U.S. railroads’ carload fortunes have yet to turn, while Canadian and Mexican railroads are moving more freight than they did last year. During the week ending Jan. 16, U.S. roads originated 264,030 carloads, down 0.8 percent, and 201,728 containers and trailers, up 1.3 percent compared with totals from the same week in 2009, according to the Association of American Railroads. Total volume dropped 15.6 percent to an estimated 28.7 billion ton-miles.

However, as demand continues to normalize for seasonality and year-over-year comparisons ease, U.S. traffic volume will gradually increase in the first quarter, said Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. analysts in a weekly “Rail Flash” report. Agricultural product traffic will benefit from a strong harvest, coal traffic will get a slight boost from stockpiles worked down by recent colder-than-normal weather and domestic intermodal traffic will continue to capitalize on “secular conversions from truck,” the report states.

For week No. 2, Canadian railroads reported 73,394 carloads, up 24.1 percent, and 44,268 intermodal loads, up 5.7 percent year over year. Mexican roads reported 13,210 carloads, up 21 percent, and 6,938 containers and trailers, up 41.7 percent.