April 25, 2019

Canadian rail freight volume was down 5.5% in February

Statistics Canada announced that the country's railways carried a total of 25.7 million tonnes of freight in February, down 5.5% from the same month a year earlier.

The Federal agency reports that total rail freight originating in Canada 3.4% from the same month in 2018 to 23.3 million tonnes in February.

Non-intermodal freight decreased 2.3% to 257,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars fell 3.0% from February 2018 to 20.8 million tonnes. The commodities with the largest increase in tonnage were wheat (33.1%), coal (9.8%) and gaseous hydrocarbons, including LPG's (30.1%). Tonnages declined for iron ores and concentrates (-16.8%), potash (-12.3%) and other refined petroleum and coal products (-25.0%).

Intermodal freight loadings decreased 5.8% from February 2018 to 176,000 units. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic decreased 6.7% to 2.6 million tonnes.

Freight traffic received from the United States fell 21.9% to 2.4 million tonnes, as a result of a 23.3% decrease in non-intermodal freight.