According to Statistics Canada, Canadian railways carried 30.0 million tons of freight in November, down 11.7 percent compared with November 2018. This was the largest decline for the month of November in the past five years and the third consecutive year-over-year monthly decrease in tonnage.
Overall, the sharp drop was led by widespread volume declines in freight loadings, coinciding with a labor disruption in Canadian rail transportation in November.
The non-intermodal freight tonnage fell sharply from November 2018, 12.8 percent to 24.1 million tons, reflecting broad-based declines for many commodities. The main decreases were reported in basic chemical products, principally potash (-32.5 percent or -636,000 tons), followed by hydrocarbon products: coal (-8.9 percent, or -271,000 tons), fuel oils and crude petroleum (-11.6 percent, or -254,000 tons) and gaseous hydrocarbons, including liquid petroleum gas (-17.8 percent, or -148,000 tons). Other significant decreases were reported in lumber (-26.4 percent, or -234,000 tons) and other cereal grains (-25.3 percent, or -172,000 tons). While the rail labor disruptions in November were an important factor, there were other factors, including a temporary slowdown in global demand for potash and the continuation of crude petroleum production limits in Alberta.
In November, there were increased carloadings for 12 of 64 commodities, most notably, other oil seeds and nuts and other agricultural products (+20.1 percent, or +103,000 tons); wheat (+3.9 percent, or +75,000 tons); and fresh, chilled or dried vegetables (+21.9 percent or +72,000 tons).
Over the same period, intermodal freight loadings decreased 5.0 percent to 3.0 million tons. Likewise, freight traffic from US rail connections fell 8.4 percent to 2.9 million tons.