According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 33.8 million tons in November, up 7.2 percent from the same month a year earlier.
Freight originating in Canada rose 8.8 percent from the same month in 2017 to 30.8 million tons in November. Non-intermodal freight increased 9.6 percent to 337,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars rose 10.2 percent from November 2017 to 27.7 million tons.
In November, the commodities with the largest increase in tonnage compared with November 2017 were fuel oils and crude petroleum (+1 058 000 tons or +93.9 percent), coal (+591 000 tons or +24.0 percent), potash (+280 000 tons or +16.9 percent), other cereal grains (+224 000 tons or +48.7 percent) and fresh, chilled or dried vegetables (+204 000 tons or +153.2 percent).
Conversely, tonnages declined for other oil seeds, nuts and other agricultural products (-250 000 tons or -32.8 percent), iron ores and concentrates (-221 000 tons or -4.3 percent) and lumber (-59 000 tons or -6.2 percent).
Intermodal freight loadings rose 1.5 percent from November 2017 to 214,000 units. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic decreased 1.8 percent to 3.2 million tons.
Freight traffic received from the United States fell 7.5 percent to 3.0 million tons as a result of a 8.2 percent decrease in non-intermodal freight.