According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 32.2 million tons in January, up 7.8 percent from the same month a year earlier.
Freight originating in Canada rose 11.0 percent from the same month in 2018 to 29.4 million tons in January. Non-intermodal freight increased 10.1 percent to 321,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars rose 11.5 percent from January 2018 to 26.4 million tons.
In January, the commodities with the largest year-over-year increase in tonnage were fuel oils and crude petroleum (+719,000 tons or +61.6 percent), iron ores and concentrates (+469,000 tons or +10.7 percent), coal (+302,000 tons or +10.7 percent), fresh, chilled or dried vegetables (+248,000 tons or +134.3 percent) and other wood products (+183,000 tons or +44.0 percent).
Conversely, tonnages declined for other oil seeds, nuts and other agricultural products (-212,000 tons or -57.5 percent), lumber (-47,000 tons or -5.2 percent) and wood chips (-45,000 tons or -32.7 percent).
Intermodal freight loadings rose 8.2 percent from January 2018 to 203,000 units. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic rose 6.6 percent to 3.0 million tons.
Freight traffic received from the United States fell 16.8 percent to 2.8 million tons as a result of a 17.2 percent decrease in non-intermodal freight.