According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 30.5 million tons in April, up 1.7 percent from the same month last year.
Freight originating in Canada and destined within Canada and to other parts of the world rose 2.5 percent to 27.1 million tons. These shipments are composed of non-intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via box cars or loaded in bulk) and intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via containers and trailers on flat cars).
Non-intermodal freight rose 3.0 percent to 296,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totaled 24.2 million tons, up 2.5 percent. The gain was attributable to an increase in freight loadings in several commodity groupings, particularly iron ores and concentrates (up 1.3 million tons), other chemical products and preparations (up 115,000 tons) and other oil seeds and nuts (up 98,000 tons).
Intermodal freight loadings rose 3.2 percent to 191,000 units in April. From a tonnage perspective, traffic increased 2.8 percent to 2.9 million tons, largely resulting from a rise in containerized cargo shipments.
Freight traffic received from the United States decreased 4.6 percent to 3.3 million tons, as a result of a decline in both non-intermodal and intermodal shipments.