December 1, 2021
Statistics Canada reports that Canadian railways carried 30.8 million tonnes of freight in September, down slightly (-0.9%) from September 2020.
The Federal Agency notes that the overall freight volume was very close to the five-year monthly average of 31.5 million tonnes
Increases in loadings of energy products and freight traffic from US connections helped to offset lower shipments of some agricultural and food products.
September's slight decline in total rail freight reflected a lower volume of domestic loadings, both non-intermodal and intermodal (or containers).
Following a 2.0% increase in August, non-intermodal loadings were down 2.5% year over year to 24.1 million tonnes in September
Freight traffic from connections with US railways helped to offset the overall decline in loadings in September, rising sharply by 15.5% to 3.7 million tonnes. This marks a seventh consecutive year-over-year increase in tonnage.
In the nine-month period from January to September, the volume of cargo moved by rail totalled 274.2 million tonnes, up 2.3% from the same period a year earlier, but 5.6% below the pre-pandemic level in September 2019.
Total January to September freight up 2.3% from the same period a year earlier, but 5.6% below the pre-pandemic level.