According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 29.3 million metric tons in January, up 6.9 percent from the same month last year.
In January, freight originating in Canada increased 6.6 percent from the same month last year to 26.6 million metric tons. Non-intermodal freight increased 6.5 percent to 290,000 carloads in January. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totaled 23.7 million metric tons, up 6.3 percent from the same month last year.
Tonnages of iron ores and concentrates (-2.7 percent) shipped by rail declined in January 2017 on a year-over-year basis.
Intermodal freight loadings rose 7.2 percent to 191,000 units from January 2016 to January 2017. The increase stemmed from a 6.9 percent gain in containers-on-flat-cars and a 22.1 percent gain in trailers-on-flat-cars. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic rose 9.0 percent to 2.9 million metric tons.
Freight traffic received from the United States rose 10.1 percent to 2.7 million metric tons as a result of an 11.5 percent increase in non-intermodal freight and a 4.8 percent decline in intermodal freight from the United States.