According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 34.7 million tons in October, up 5.3 percent from the same month a year earlier.
Freight originating in Canada rose 6.3 percent from the same month last year to 31.5 million tons in October. Non-intermodal freight increased by 9.4 percent to 345,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars rose 7.0 percent from October 2017 to 28.3 million tons.
In October, the commodities with the largest year-over-year increases in tonnage were fuel oils and crude petroleum (up 1 002 000 tons or +87.3 percent), other cereal grains (up 200 000 tons or +47.9 percent), wheat (up 186 000 tons or +10.1 percent), fertilizers (excluding potash) (up 143 000 tons or +58.3 percent), and gasoline and aviation turbine fuel (up 131 000 tons or +55.8 percent).
Conversely, tonnages declined for other oil seeds, nuts and other agricultural products (down 427 000 tons or -42.4 percent), iron ores and concentrates (down 255 000 tons or -4.9 percent), and lumber (down 71 000 tons or -6.9 percent).
Intermodal freight loadings rose 2.2 percent from October 2017 to 219,000 units. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic increased 0.8 percent to 3.2 million tons.
Freight traffic received from the United States fell 4.0 percent to 3.2 million tons, as a result of a 4.9 percent decrease in non-intermodal freight.