Railway carloadings, January 2024

Released: 2024-03-25

Highlights

In January, the volume of cargo carried by Canadian railways totalled 29.3 million tonnes, down 8.5% from January 2023 levels. Fewer shipments of coal and grains largely contributed to the decline.

While the overall freight volume was down year over year, it was just under the five-year average of 30.8 million tonnes for the month of January.

To further explore current and historical data in an interactive format, please visit the "Monthly Railway Carloadings: Interactive Dashboard."

Chart 1 
Railway carloadings, total tonnage

The traffic decline in January was the result of lower volumes across all types of rail operations: non-intermodal loadings (mainly commodities) and intermodal loadings (mainly containers) as well as freight traffic from connections with American railways.

Coal leads decline

Following a year-over-year increase of 10.2% in December 2023, non-intermodal freight loadings fell 8.3% year over year to 23.5 million tonnes in January 2024. While widespread, the decline was led by a sharp drop in shipments of coal as well as ongoing declines in grain.

Loadings of coal declined for the first time after four straight months of year-over-year increases, down sharply by 19.0% (-627 000 tonnes) in January.

Loadings of certain agricultural and food products, in particular grains, also declined in January, reflecting lower crop production due to less favourable growing conditions in Western Canada during 2023. Carloadings of wheat dropped 26.2% (-611 000 tonnes) compared with the same month in 2023. Loadings of canola were down 46.7% (-385 000 tonnes) year over year in January 2024 while, similarly, loadings of other cereal grains were down 40.2% (-211 000 tonnes) from January 2023 levels.

These declines mirror the January 2024 decrease in Canada's exports of both agriculture and energy products, as reported in the "Canadian international merchandise trade" release in March of this year.

Chart 2 
Railway carloadings, largest commodity differences, January 2023 to January 2024

Potash and fuel oils remain strong

Partly offsetting these declines were increases for two commodities. Loadings of potash posted a year-over-year gain for a sixth consecutive month, increasing by 7.9% (+137 000 tonnes) in January 2024 compared with a year earlier, while loadings of fuel oils and crude petroleum rose for the third month in a row, up 12.7% (+119 000 tonnes) in January compared with the same month last year.

Intermodal traffic down again

In January 2024, domestic intermodal shipments—mainly containers—edged down 3.3% year over year to 2.7 million tonnes. Indeed, the intermodal rail volume was the lowest for the month of January since 2020.

American freight hits a 7-year low

Freight traffic from US rail connections declined year over year in January 2024. Tonnage fell 13.8% to 3.1 million tonnes in January—the lowest traffic level for the month of January since 2017.

Contact information

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