Canadian Railroad Freight Dips in December

Posted on February 25, 2026

On Tuesday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that Canadian railways transported 31.0 million tons of freight in December 2025, down 2.0% from December 2024, mainly due to fewer shipments of iron ores and coal.

Freight traffic from US rail connections declined year-over-year for the 11th consecutive month, falling 7.4% to 3.3 million tons in December.

For 2025 as a whole, the volume of goods moved by rail totaled 376.6 million tons, edging down 0.2% from 2024. A bumper 2025 harvest and strong global demand supported grain shipments throughout the year, StatCan said.

Loadings of lumber dropped 12.1% from 2024 to 7.3 million tons in 2025, marking the largest annual decline in tonnage in more than five years.

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