52-001-XIE
Monthly railway carloadings
May 2005

Coal, one of the top bulk commodities moved by rail in Canada, took the top position in May with loadings in excess of 3.2 million metric tonnes.

While most commodities showed moderate variations, coal loadings increased by 15.1% from April to May. This increase of 426,000 tonnes resulted in coal loadings reaching their highest volume since May 2002.

Overall, May proved to be an excellent month for rail carriers across Canada. In total, more than 24.5 million metric tonnes of goods were loaded on rail this month making it the strongest month of May over the last six years. May loadings rose 3.3% from April despite the continuing strike in the iron ore sector which held back loadings by about one million tonnes.

In May, the non-intermodal portion of freight totalled 22.1 million tonnes, up 3.6% from April. The rise was a result of increased shipments of coal, other metallic minerals, alumina and forest derived products. Loadings of automobiles and mini vans also did well with a 10.1% increase in the number of rail cars required to move these goods. In total, about 281,400 railcars were required to load all of May’s non-intermodal freight.

Loadings of intermodal freight, that is, containers and trailers hauled on flat cars, amounted to 2.4 million tonnes, virtually unchanged from March or April.

Freight coming from the United States, either destined for or passing through Canada, reached 2.5 million tonnes, up 8.8% from the previous month.

On a year-over-year basis, non-intermodal tonnage was up 1.3% from May last year. Intermodal traffic was up 3.4%, while traffic received from the United States was up 9.9%.

For further information please contact Transportation Statistics, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0T6 (Telephone: 1-866-500-8400, Internet: TransportationStatistics@statcan.ca).