Statistics Canada reports that the volume of cargo carried by Canadian railways reached 30.2 million tonnes in July, up 5.6% from July 2021 levels. Higher carloadings of energy products and potash helped contribute to this third consecutive month of year-over-year growth.
The Federal Agency notes that, for July 2022, the overall freight volume was also the highest level since July 2019, before the pandemic, just under the five-year monthly average of 30.9 million tonnes.
The tonnage of non-intermodal freight loadings was up for the third consecutive monthly year-over-year period, rising 7.1% year over year to 23.3 million tonnes in July, driven largely by increases in carloadings of some energy commodities.
Domestic intermodal shipments-mainly containers-also contributed to the overall growth in freight traffic in July, rising 4.6% year over year to 3.0 million tonnes. This was the highest volume recorded for the month of July in three years.
Freight traffic coming from the United States remained high in July despite a 1.6% dip from July 2021, after 15 consecutive monthly year-over-year gains. Tonnage edged down by about 61 000 tonnes to reach 3.8 million tonnes in July 2022-the third highest level on record for the month of July.