Railway carloadings, June 2012

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Canadian rail freight traffic rose 6.8% from June 2011 to 27.2 million tonnes in June. The gain was the result of increases in both domestic and international cargo loadings.

Over the same period, the industry's core domestic transportation systems, composed of non-intermodal traffic (i.e., carried in bulk or loaded in box cars) and intermodal traffic (i.e., containers and trailers on flat cars), increased 4.9% to 23.8 million tonnes.

Non-intermodal cargo loadings rose 4.2% to 21.2 million tonnes. The gain was the result of increased traffic in approximately half of the commodity classifications carried by the railways. The commodity groups with the largest increases in tonnage were coal, fuel oils and crude petroleum, and iron ores and concentrates.

In contrast, several commodity groups registered decreases. Loadings of wheat decreased the most, followed by sand, gravel and crushed stone, and colza seeds (canola).

Intermodal freight loadings rose 10.5% to 2.6 million tonnes. The increase occurred solely on the strength of containerized cargo shipments, as trailers loaded onto flat cars declined.

At an international level, total rail traffic received from the United States advanced 22.2% to 3.4 million tonnes. The increase was driven by both non-intermodal and intermodal traffic.

Geographically, 60.0% of the freight traffic originating in Canada was in the Western Division of Canada, with the remainder loaded in the Eastern Division. For statistical purposes, cargo loadings from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to the Pacific Coast are classified to the Western Division while loadings from Armstrong, Ontario, to the Atlantic Coast are classified to the Eastern Division.