Railway carloadings, December 2014
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Released: 2015-02-25
The volume of rail freight carried in Canada totalled 29.0 million tonnes in December, an 11.5% increase from the same month a year earlier.
Domestic rail freight originating in Canada and destined within Canada and other parts of the world rose 12.9% to 25.7 million tonnes. These shipments are composed of non-intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via box cars or loaded in bulk) and intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via containers and trailers on flat cars).
Non-intermodal freight increased 11.6% to 282,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totalled 23.1 million tonnes, up 12.8%. The rise was attributable to increased freight loadings in several commodity groupings, particularly iron ores and concentrates (up 968 000 tonnes) and potash (up 511 000 tonnes).
Intermodal freight loadings rose 12.8% to 173,000 units in December. From a tonnage perspective, traffic advanced 13.7% to 2.6 million tonnes. The gain stemmed primarily from an increase in containerized cargo shipments.
Traffic received from the United States rose 1.7% to 3.3 million tonnes. The rise was the result of an increase in non-intermodal shipments.
Note to readers
The survey presents data essential to the timely analysis of the rail transportation industry and its contribution to the Canadian economy. Survey data cover carrier railways operating in Canada that provide for-hire freight service and their transportation of various railway carloading components, such as the number of rail cars, tonnage, units and 20-feet equivalent units.
Data aggregations are available for Canada, the Eastern Division and the Western Division.
The aggregations in this release are not seasonally adjusted.
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