According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 32.7 million tons in April, up 6.3 percent from the same month a year earlier.
Freight originating in Canada rose 9.8 percent from the same month in 2018 to 29.7 million tons in April. Non-intermodal freight increased 4.6 percent to 315,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars rose 10.1 percent from April 2018 to 26.6 million tons.
In April, the commodities with the largest year-over-year increase in tonnage were iron ores and concentrates (+1.6 million tons or +46.9 percent), wheat (+681,000 tons or +33.1 percent), fuel oils and crude petroleum (+420,000 tons or +36.9 percent), potash (+206,000 tons or +11.5 percent), and sand, gravel and crushed stone (+125,000 tons or 108.2 percent).
Tonnages declined for other cereal grains (-221,000 tons or -35.7 percent), coal (-186,000 tons or -5.9 percent), colza seeds (canola) (-176,000 tons or -18.0 percent), mixed loads or unidentified freight (-124,000 tons or -97.0 percent) and iron and steel, primary or semi-finished (-86,000 tons or -20.7 percent).
Intermodal freight loadings increased 6.1 percent from April 2018 to 210,000 units. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic increased 7.5 percent to 3.2 million tons.
Freight traffic received from the United States fell 19.1 percent to 3.0 million tons as a result of a 24.0 percent decrease in non-intermodal freight.