Highlights

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1. The Canadian railway industry saw its operating revenues rise for the 10th consecutive year in 2008, as operating revenues rose 4.5% to $11.0 billion.
2. Total operating expenses, for its part, grew 8.0% compared to the previous year, reaching $8.6 billion.
3. The combined effect of the changes in revenues and expenses resulted in a net operating income of $2.4 billion in 2008, a decrease of 6.5% compared to 2007. Net income, after adjusting for taxes and extraordinary items, dropped 78.8% to $442.3 million.
4. Total assets of the railways were $21.4 billion in 2008. CN held 52.1% of the industry’s total assets with $11.2 billion, while CP held 38.1% with $8.2 billion and VIA Rail held 4.4% with $932.3 million. Regional and short-haul carriers held the remaining 5.5% with $1.2 billion.
5. Rail carriers consumed 2.1 billion litres of diesel fuel in 2008 and spent $2.0 billion acquiring the fuel.
6. Total employment in the rail industry rose to a little more than 34,400 in 2008 – an increase of 0.5% from 2007 levels. The average annual compensation per employee also rose in 2008, rising 2.3% to approximately $73,700. Combined, these factors pushed overall compensation up 2.8% to $2.5 billion.
7. Total tonnage of revenue freight decreased 5.3% in 2008 to 337.8 million tonnes as did tonne-kilometres by 3.8% to 344.9 billion tonne-kilometres.
8. The total number of passengers carried by rail in 2008 increased 9.6% from 2007 to 4.8 million as well as the total number of passenger-kilometres, rising 9.0% to 1.6 billion.
9. The three commodities with the largest volumes transported in 2008 were: coal, the main commodity transported, at 34.5 million metric tonnes, followed by mixed carloads or unidentified freight at 25.9 million metric tonnes, and iron ores and concentrates at 19.9 million metric tonnes.