According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 25.7 million tons in February, down 5.5 percent from the same month a year earlier.
Freight originating in Canada fell 3.4 percent from the same month in 2018 to 23.3 million tons in February. Non-intermodal freight decreased 2.3 percent to 257,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars fell 3.0 percent from February 2018 to 20.8 million tons.
In February, the commodities with the largest increase in tonnage compared with February 2018 were wheat (+402,000 tons or +33.1 percent), coal (+219,000 tons or +9.8 percent) and gaseous hydrocarbons, including LPG's (+178,000 tons or +30.1 percent).
Tonnages declined for iron ores and concentrates (-769,000 tons or -16.8 percent), potash (-209,000 tons or -12.3 percent) and other refined petroleum and coal products (-82,000 tons or -25.0 percent).
Intermodal freight loadings decreased 5.8 percent from February 2018 to 176,000 units. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic decreased 6.7 percent to 2.6 million tons.
Freight traffic received from the United States fell 21.9 percent to 2.4 million tons, as a result of a 23.3 percent decrease in non-intermodal freight.