Railway carloadings, October 2012

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The Canadian railway industry carried 28.7 million tonnes of freight in October, a 1.0% advance from October 2011 and the third consecutive year-over-year increase for the month. The rise in tonnage occurred despite a drop in rail freight traffic received from the United States.

Domestically, combined intermodal traffic (that is, freight moved via containers and trailers on flat cars) and non-intermodal traffic (that is, freight moved via box cars or loaded in bulk) increased 2.4% to 25.5 million tonnes.

Intermodal traffic rose to 2.5 million tonnes, a gain of 157 077 tonnes from October 2011. The gain was the direct result of increased containerized cargo shipments as trailer loadings fell during the month.

Non-intermodal traffic, which represents the vast majority of freight carried by the industry, grew to 22.9 million tonnes, an increase of 435 738 tonnes from October 2011. The gain was spurred in part by strong shipments of fuel oils and crude petroleum (up 395 775 tonnes); other oil seeds and nuts and other agricultural products (up 220 722 tonnes); and other refined petroleum and coal products (up 134 714 tonnes).

Partially offsetting the increase were large declines in loadings of coal (down 269 833 tonnes), iron and steel – primary or semi-finished (down 179 482 tonnes), and potash (down 159 650 tonnes).

The majority of the domestic freight loadings occurred in the Western Division of Canada, which accounted for 58.4% of the loadings, while the Eastern Division accounted for the remainder. 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.

Freight traffic received from the United States decreased 8.9% to 3.2 million tonnes compared with the same month last year. The drop in rail activity was in part the result of Hurricane Sandy, which negatively affected rail traffic in the last week of October in the Eastern United States.