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Railway carloadings
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The Canadian railway industry loaded 22.4 million metric tonnes in November, down 8.3% from November 2007 and the lowest amount loaded for the month of November in six years.
Both non-intermodal and intermodal transportation systems experienced decreased activity for the month.
Non-intermodal loadings fell 7.5% from November 2007 to 20.2 million metric tonnes. Overall, 39 of the 64 commodity groups registered decreased activity for the month. These commodities with losses in tonnage loaded represented 58.9% of the total non-intermodal loadings. The drop was heavily influenced by reduced loadings of coal, potash, lumber, wood pulp and other basic chemicals. These five commodity groups accounted for 30.0% of the total non-intermodal loadings.
Despite the overall decline in non-intermodal loadings, some major commodity groups saw increased activity. These included wheat (+39.7%), colza seeds (+8.2%) and iron ore and concentrates (+4.9%).
Intermodal loadings fell 15.5% to 2.2 million metric tonnes from November 2007. Containerized cargo and trailers on flat cars decreased by 15.7% and 10.5% respectively.
Rail freight traffic coming from the United States fell to 2.8 million metric tonnes, down 6.5% compared with November 2007.
Available on CANSIM: table 404-0002.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2732.
The November 2008 issue of Monthly Railway Carloadings, Vol. 85, no. 11 (52-001-XWE, free), is now available from the Publications module of our website.
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact the Dissemination Unit (toll-free 1-866-500-8400; fax: 613-951-0009; transportationstatistics@statcan.gc.ca), Transportation Division.
