Canadian Rail Freight Declines in January

On Wednesday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that Canadian railways transported 30.9 million tons of freight in January, down 4.2% year-over-year.

Despite the decline, total freight volume was slightly above the five-year average of 30.7 million tons for the month of January.

The year-over-year decrease reflected lower volumes across all major rail traffic categories, including non-intermodal loadings (primarily commodities), intermodal loadings (primarily containers), and freight received from US rail connections.

Rail freight received from the US fell 7.7% year-over-year to 3.4 million tons in January, marking the 12th consecutive decline.