Railway carloadings, January 2014

Released: 2014-03-26

Canadian railways carried 25.3 million tonnes of freight in January, down 2.7% from the same month last year. The drop in shipments occurred despite the strong growth in traffic received from the United States.

Rail freight originating in Canada and destined within Canada and other parts of the world decreased 4.9% to 22.1 million tonnes. These shipments are composed of non-intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via box cars or loaded in bulk) and intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via containers and trailers on flat cars).

Non-intermodal freight decreased 6.1% to 244,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars declined 4.8% to 19.8 million tonnes. Overall, 45 of the 64 commodities shipped by Canadian railways fell during the month. The largest declines in shipments were for wheat (down 228 000 tonnes), iron ores and concentrates (down 220 000 tonnes), other refined petroleum and coal products (down 116 000 tonnes) and wood pulp (down 111 000 tonnes).

The drop in loadings in January occurred despite strong gains in several commodities, led by coal (up 405 000 tonnes), fuel oils and crude petroleum (up 314 000 tonnes), other chemical products and preparations (up 166 000 tonnes) and potash (up 158 000 tonnes).

Intermodal loadings fell 7.2% to 150,000 units in January. The drop was solely based on decreased containerized cargo shipments, which declined 8.1% to 144,000 units. From a tonnage perspective, intermodal traffic was down 5.6% to 2.3 million tonnes.

Rail traffic received from the United States rose 15.6% to 3.2 million tonnes as a result of higher non-intermodal shipments.

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