Statistics Canada reports that the volume of cargo carried by Canadian railways reached 32.1 million tonnes in January, up 8.0% from January 2024. Year-over-year gains in carloadings of wheat, coal and canola in January 2025 contributed to the overall increase.
The Federal Agency notes that the increase was due to higher volumes across all types of rail operations: non-intermodal loadings (mainly commodities), intermodal loadings (mainly containers) and freight traffic from connections with American railways.
In January, domestic non-intermodal freight traffic was up 7.5% year over year to 25.5 million tonnes. There were gains in the loadings of several commodities during the month. The largest increase was recorded in wheat, with loadings rising by 43.1%.
In January 2025, intermodal shipments -mainly containers- originating in Canada were up 12.5% year over year to 3.1 million tonnes.
In January, freight traffic from U.S. rail connections increased year over year by 7.8% (+259 000 tonnes) to reach 3.6 million tonnes. This was the highest volume recorded for the month of January since 2022.
