October 27, 2023
Statistics Canada reports that Canadian railways transported 30.6 million tonnes of freight in August, down 2.4% from August 2022 levels and marking the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year decline.
The Federal Agency notes that the overall freight volume in August 2023 was just below the five-year average of 31.5 million tonnes for this month. While shipments of containers and certain energy products were down significantly, carloadings of some agricultural and food products registered strong gains.
Intermodal shipments originating from Canada led the overall decline in freight for the second month in a row in August, falling 11.6% year over year to 2.9 million tonnes. Container volumes have declined year over year for nine straight months, and August was the second-lowest volume recorded for this month in seven years.
Non-intermodal freight loadings in Canada edged down 0.8% year over year to 23.9 million tonnes, driven by sharp declines in some energy-based commodities
Freight traffic received from connections with US railways saw a year-over-year decline for the 12th consecutive month, down 4.2% to 3.8 million tonnes in August.