May 27, 2020
Statistics Canada announced that despite all the setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's railways carried 33.2 million tonnes of merchandise in March, up 4.7% compared with the same month in 2019.
The Federal agency reports that 26.6 million tonnes of non-intermodal loadings (carloads) were carried, an increase of 5.5% from the same period in 2019. Fuel oil and crude petroleum loadings posted the largest gain, rising 39.1% to 1.9 million tonnes.
There were also considerable increases in loadings of some of agricultural products in March, in particular with respect to wheat (+21.5% or +405 000 tonnes), canola (51.0% or +397 000 tonnes) and fresh, chilled or dried vegetables (+73.5% or +189 000 tonnes).
Loadings of iron ores and concentrates fell 12.9% (-642 000 tonnes) and lockdown measures and travel restrictions resulted in a 35.4% drop (-108 000 tonnes) in jet fuel loadings.
The volume of intermodal freight loadings (those moved by containers) decreased 4.0% to 3.1 million tonnes, compared with the same period in 2019.
Freight traffic from US rail connections rose 6.6% to 3.6 million tonnes in March 2020.