According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 33 million tons in October, up 5.3 percent from October 2016.
Freight originating in Canada increased 3.9 percent from the same month last year to 29.7 million tons. Non-intermodal freight rose 2.7 percent to 316,000 carloads in October. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totaled 26.5 million tons, up 3.0 percent from October 2016.
In October, the commodities with the largest year-over-year increases in tonnage were iron ores and concentrates (359,000 tons or +7.5 percent), coal (319,000 tons or +11.6 percent), potash (140,000 tons or +9.1 percent), other oil seeds and nuts and other agricultural products (130,000 tons or +14.4 percent) and fuel oils and crude petroleum (124,000 tons or +12.1 percent).
Intermodal freight loadings rose 12.3 percent to 214,000 units from October 2016 to October 2017. The gain was attributable to increases in both containers-on-flat-cars (+12.4 percent) and trailers-on-flat-cars (+5.6 percent). In terms of weight, intermodal traffic rose 12.5 percent to 3.2 million tons.
Freight traffic received from the United States rose 19.2 percent to 3.3 million tons, as a result of increases in both non-intermodal (+20.7 percent) and intermodal (+2.7 percent) freight from the United States.