According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 31.9 million tons in September, up 6.9 percent from September 2016.
Freight originating in Canada increased 4.6 percent from the same month last year to 28.5 million tons. Non-intermodal freight rose 2.8 percent to 304,000 carloads in September. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totaled 25.4 million tons, up 4.0 percent from September 2016.
Tonnages were up for canola (513,000 tons or +54.7 percent), fuel oils and crude petroleum (311,000 tons or +42.0 percent), iron ores and concentrates (289,000 tons or +6.6 percent), coal (269,000 tons or +10.2 percent) and potash (237,000 tons or +15.3 percent) in September, compared with September 2016.
Intermodal freight loadings rose 9.8 percent to 208,000 units from September 2016 to September 2017. The gain was attributable to a 10.0 percent increase in containers-on-flat-cars and a 3.0 percent decrease in trailers-on-flat-cars. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic increased 9.5 percent to 3.1 million tons.
Freight traffic received from the United States rose 31.2 percent to 3.4 million tons, due to a 35.7 percent increase in non-intermodal freight and a 12.3 percent decline in intermodal freight from the United States.