1 April 2013

Canadian Railways Boast Strongest January Freight Levels in 14 Years

Ottawa Ontario - The Canadian railway industry carried 26.1 million tonnes of freight in January, up 4.9 percent from January 2012, according to Statistics Canada.
 
The increase occurred solely on the strength of domestic rail shipments, according to the report.
 
The tonnage marked the largest amount of freight carried for the month of January since 1999.
 
Within Canada, combined loadings of non-intermodal freight (cargo moved via box cars or loaded in bulk) and intermodal freight (cargo moved via containers and trailers on flat cars) rose 6.1 percent to 23.3 million tonnes.
 
Non-intermodal loadings increased 5.7 percent to 20.9 million tonnes.
 
The gain was tied to increased shipments in most of the commodity classifications carried by Canadian railways.
 
Chief among these were shipments related to fuel oils and crude petroleum, potash, fresh, chilled, or dried vegetables, and wheat.
 
The growth in tonnage for these four commodities alone was larger than the combined decrease in tonnage from all commodities that saw a decline in January.
 
Intermodal loadings increased 9.6 percent to 2.4 million tonnes.
 
Both containerized cargo shipments and trailers loaded onto flat cars contributed to this growth.
 
The Western Division accounted for 59.2 percent of the domestic freight loadings, up 4.2 percent from the same month in 2012 to 13.8 million tonnes.
 
The remainder was loaded in the Eastern Division, which saw its loadings increase by 9.0 percent to 9.5 million tonnes.
 
For statistical purposes, cargo loadings from Thunder Bay, to the Pacific Coast are classified to the Western Division, while loadings from Armstrong, to the Atlantic Coast are classified to the Eastern Division.
 
Freight traffic received from US connections declined 3.9 percent to 2.8 million tonnes.
 
The drop was the result of decreased non-intermodal loadings.
 
Author unknown.

Vancouver Island
British Columbia
Canada