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March 1, 2007 12:00 PM, EST

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Rail intermodal levels rose last week but overall carload traffic continued a downward trend for the year, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday.Intermodal volume was 231,943 trailers and containers for the week ended Friday, up 9.2% from the same week last year, AAR said.Trailer volume fell 8.4% while containers jumped 15.5%, the rail trade group said in its weekly repo.Rail carload traffic fell 2.5% for the week, led by a big declines in metallic ores, farm products and lumber and wood products.Total carload volume was estimated at 32.5 billion ton-miles, down 0.6% from a year earlier.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.