Railway carloadings, July 2025

Released: 2025-09-24

Highlights

The volume of cargo carried by Canadian railways reached 30.7 million tonnes in July 2025, down 0.4% from one year earlier.

Despite this decline, the overall freight volume in July 2025 was slightly above the five-year historical average of 29.8 million tonnes for the month of July.

Consult the Rail Data Visualization Hub to explore monthly and annual rail statistics in an interactive format.

Chart 1 
Railway carloadings, total tonnage

Lower volumes of freight traffic from connections with American railways drove the overall traffic decrease in July, as non-intermodal domestic loadings (mainly commodities) and intermodal domestic loadings (mainly containers) both reported gains.

American freight traffic continues downward trend

In July 2025, freight loadings from US rail connections dropped 19.2% (-794 000 tonnes) to 3.3 million tonnes, the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year decline. According to Canadian international merchandise trade data for July, Canada's rail imports (-16.7%) and exports (-14.1%) with the United States were also down year over year. Freight loadings from US rail connections marked the lowest volume recorded for the month of July since the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Non-intermodal loadings up

Non-intermodal freight traffic in Canada rose 1.6% year over year to 24.2 million tonnes in July 2025, the highest level for the month since 2019. The gain in July 2025 was led by strong loadings of three commodities in particular: iron ore and concentrates (+10.5%; +469 000 tonnes), coal (+12.9%; +388 000 tonnes) and wheat (+15.2%; +275 000 tonnes). Indeed, carloadings of wheat have increased sharply year over year each month this year, with the exception of February.

Chart 2 
Railway carloadings, largest commodity differences, July 2024 to July 2025

Carloadings of fuel oils and crude petroleum continue to fall

Declines in loadings of other commodities dampened the overall growth in non-intermodal traffic in July 2025.

Carloadings of fuel oils and crude petroleum were down 25.5% (-244 000 tonnes) in July from July 2024, marking the eighth consecutive monthly year-over-year decrease. This decline is reflected in the year-over-year drop in the exports of energy products, as reported in the Canadian international merchandise trade data.

Amidst tariff uncertainty, loadings of canola were also down, decreasing 20.1% (-139 000 tonnes) in July. Meanwhile, loadings of iron and steel—primary or semi-finished—were down 30.3% (-106 000 tonnes) in July from July 2024, marking the lowest level for this commodity in almost five years.

Intermodal traffic up

In July 2025, intermodal shipments—mainly containers—originating in Canada increased 9.4% compared with July 2024 to 3.2 million tonnes, marking the fifth consecutive month of positive growth.

Contact information

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