March 27, 2019

Canadian rail freight volume jumps 7.8% in January

Statistics Canada announced that the country's railways carried a total of 32.2 million tonnes of freight in January, up 7.8% from the same month a year earlier.

The Federal agency reports that total rail freight originating in Canada was up 11.0% from the same month in 2018 to 29.4 million tonnes in January.

Non-intermodal freight increased 10.1% to 321,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars rose 11.5% from January 2018 to 26.4 million tonnes. The commodities with the largest year-over-year increase in tonnage were fuel oils and crude petroleum (61.6%), iron ores and concentrates (10.7%), coal (10.7%), fresh, chilled or dried vegetables (134.3%) and other wood products (44.0%). Tonnages declined for other oil seeds, nuts and other agricultural products (-57.5%), lumber (-5.2%) and wood chips (-32.7%).

Intermodal freight loadings rose 8.2% from January 2018 to 203,000 units. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic rose 6.6% to 3.0 million tonnes.

Freight traffic received from the United States fell 16.8% to 2.8 million tonnes as a result of a 17.2% decrease in non-intermodal freight.