According to Statistics Canada, in January, the volume of cargo carried by Canadian railways totaled 29.3 million tons, down 8.5 percent from January 2023 levels. Fewer shipments of coal and grains largely contributed to the decline.
While the overall freight volume was down year over year, it was just under the five-year average of 30.8 million tons for the month of January.
The traffic decline in January was the result of lower volumes across all types of rail operations: non-intermodal loadings (mainly commodities) and intermodal loadings (mainly containers) as well as freight traffic from connections with American railways.
Following a year-over-year increase of 10.2 percent in December 2023, non-intermodal freight loadings fell 8.3 percent year over year to 23.5 million tons in January 2024. While widespread, the decline was led by a sharp drop in shipments of coal as well as ongoing declines in grain.
Loadings of coal declined for the first time after four straight months of year-over-year increases, down sharply by 19.0 percent (-627,000 tons) in January.
In January 2024, domestic intermodal shipments—mainly containers—edged down 3.3 percent year over year to 2.7 million tons. Indeed, the intermodal rail volume was the lowest for the month of January since 2020.
Freight traffic from US rail connections declined year over year in January 2024. Tonnage fell 13.8 percent to 3.1 million tons in January—the lowest traffic level for the month of January since 2017.