Highlights

• Canada’s railways have recorded their strongest tonnages for the month of July in six years.
• Railways carried 23.9 million metric tonnes of freight in July, a 3.9% increase from July last year, and the highest level since 2000.
• However, July’s figures were up only marginally from June’s 23.8 million tonnes.
• Total non-intermodal loadings amounted to 21.6 million tonnes, about the same as in June. Intermodal loadings, that is, containers and trailers hauled on flat cars, decreased 4.2% from June to 2.3 million tonnes.
• Freight coming from the United States either destined for or passing through Canada held steady at 2.2 million tonnes, reflecting the non-intermodal trend of no change from the previous month.
• Four commodities – wheat, iron ore and concentrates, coal and lumber – accounted for just over 42% of rail tonnage in the non-intermodal portion of goods loaded in July.
• Potash, still the fifth largest commodity grouping, fell by almost 16.0% from last July, continuing its downward trend in 2006.
• On a year-over-year basis, non-intermodal tonnage was 3.8% higher than in July 2005. Intermodal loadings rose 4.7%, while traffic received from the United States rose 12.2%.

Note: Data on railway carloadings have undergone some revisions since the last release.