Rail carloadings surge 7.9% in November

OTTAWA, Ont. — Canadian railways carried 24.8 million tonnes of freight in November, up 7.9% from the same month in 2009, according to a report from Statistics Canada.

In terms of tonnage, non-intermodal domestic freight loadings were the largest contributing factor behind this increase, according to the report.

Compared with November 2009, non-intermodal loadings rose 6.9% to 20.2 million tonnes. While only half of the 63 commodity groups registered increases, strong gains from several commodity groups, such as potash, iron ore and concentrates and coal, helped push loadings up for the month.

Intermodal domestic freight loadings rose 7.3% from November 2009 to 2.3 million tonnes. Officials say the gain was the by-product of an increase in loadings from containerized cargo shipments. Freight loadings from trailers on flatcars fell during the month.

On an international scale, traffic received from the US destined for or passing through Canada rose 18.6% from November 2009 to 2.4 million tonnes. Both non-intermodal and intermodal freight traffic rose during the month.