Rail transportation, 2024
Released: 2026-04-28
In 2024, operating revenues for the Canadian rail transportation industry rose 3.6% year over year to $21.6 billion, marking a fourth consecutive year of growth.
The Canadian rail transportation industry is comprised of two mainline freight carriers, several shortline freight railways and passenger rail companies.
Consult the Rail Data Visualization Hub to explore monthly and annual rail statistics in an interactive format.
Freight revenues remain strong
Despite the impact of work stoppages, notably a short August lockout of mainline employees, freight revenues increased 3.6% year over year to $19.5 billion in 2024. Freight revenues accounted for 90.1% of the rail industry's total operating revenues.
Freight revenues for the shortline carriers, which accounted for 7.4% of the industry's total freight revenues in 2024, increased 4.4% compared with 2023. Shortline carriers often transport specific commodities, such as agricultural or metal products, connecting producing areas with a mainline carrier.
Passenger revenues up in 2024
Passenger revenues increased 10.4% year over year to $485.8 million in 2024, surpassing pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels for the second straight year. VIA Rail reported carrying 4.4 million passengers in 2024, which was 272,000 more passengers (+6.6%) compared with one year earlier.
Rail expenses up
Total rail operating expenses rose 4.1% (+$547.1 million) year over year to $14.1 billion in 2024. All categories of operating expenses were up from the previous year, including ways and structures expenses (+10.8%), equipment expenses (+6.7%) and general expenses (+3.1%).
Fuel expenditure by Canadian railways edged up 0.1% in 2024, despite fuel usage increasing 2.8% from 2023, reflecting lower energy prices for the second year in a row.
Despite higher expenditures overall, the industry's operating ratio (that is, operating expenses expressed as a proportion of operating revenue) remained constant at 0.65 in 2024. In other words, Canadian railways spent $65 to generate $100 in revenue in 2024.
Chart 1
Rail operating revenues and expenses, 2015 to 2024
Highest level of freight volume since 2019
Total freight tonnage rose 1.1% year over year to 329.2 million tonnes in 2024, marking the highest level of freight volume since 2019 (330.2 million tonnes).
Chart 2
Total freight volume transported by rail, 2015 to 2024
Canola saw higher rail volumes in 2024, up 23.0% to 10.2 million tonnes. This was followed by iron ores and concentrates, up 10.3% to 19.5 million tonnes. According to Natural Resources Canada, iron ore production continued to rise in 2024. Another notable increase was fuel oils and crude petroleum products (+7.4%), which reached 12.0 million tonnes moved in 2024. This was the first increase for these products following a four-year decline starting in 2020.
Wheat rail tonnage saw a second consecutive year of increase, up 3.2% to 27.8 million tonnes in 2024.
Declines were observed in some energy products in 2024, notably coal (-5.4%), as Canadian exports to some Asian countries—China, India, and Japan—were down sharply in 2024.
Lumber rail tonnage declined for the third year in a row, down 3.6% to 7.9 million tonnes in 2024, marking the lowest tonnage moved in 15 years.
Of the total volume of all rail commodities originating from a Canadian location in 2024, almost three-quarters (74.6%, or 208.2 million tonnes) came from Western Canada (Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Manitoba).
Chart 3
Top six commodities transported by rail, 2015 to 2024
Note to readers
This release is based on two data sources, an annual survey of the rail industry and administrative commodity origin and destination statistics from Transport Canada. The former collects financial as well as operating and employment data from a census of Canadian railways providing for-hire freight and passenger services.
The commodity origin and destination statistics measure the movements of commodities carried by Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian operations of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway (CPKC), carriers that interline with CN and CPKC, as well as a number of shortline carriers that do not interline with CN nor CPKC.
Financial, operational and origin and destination data may change on a year-over-year basis as a result of, for example, fluctuations in currency exchange rates and reclassifications of accounts. Data are also influenced by mergers, acquisitions and companies which may enter or exit the industry.
Data aggregations are available for Canada and select geographic regions.
It is important to note that the universe of shortline carriers changes regularly. In particular, in 2018, data from one company were added to the estimates for the first time. In previous years, this company was classified as inactive, and no estimates were made. Therefore, any comparison of 2018 data with those of previous years should be made with caution, as this constitutes a break in the series.
A shortline freight railway usually takes goods from one or more points to a point on the larger transportation network, which is usually a mainline railway but may be a trans-shipment point onto another transportation mode. These are carriers with less than $250 million in annual revenues for at least two years in a row.
Mainline freight railways usually move goods on the larger transportation network and are carriers with $250 million and more in annual revenues for at least two years in a row.
The Transportation Data and Information Hub, featuring data from Statistics Canada, Transport Canada and partners, provides Canadians with online access to comprehensive statistics and indicators for the country's transportation sector.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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