Lumber railway car loadings rise in November 2011 – Statscan
January 27, 2012
By: Working Forest Staff
Canadian rail freight traffic from both domestic and international operations was up 8.9% in November from November 2010, to 27.1 million tonnes.
Over the same 12-month period, the industry's core domestic transportation systems, non-intermodal and intermodal, saw their combined freight loadings grow 7.8% to 24.2 million tonnes.
Non-intermodal cargo loadings rose 8.0% to 21.8 million tonnes. The gain was the result of increased traffic in more than half of the commodity classifications carried by the railways. The commodity groups with the largest increases in tonnage were wheat, colza seeds (canola) and lumber.
Intermodal freight loadings of containers and trailers loaded onto flat cars advanced 6.0% to 2.4 million tonnes. The increase was attributed solely to containerized cargo shipments as trailers loaded onto flat cars fell in November.
At an international level, traffic received from the United States experienced a strong 19.5% gain to 2.8 million tonnes. The increase was driven by both non-intermodal and intermodal traffic.
Geographically, 57.8% of the freight traffic originating in Canada was in the Western Division of Canada, with the remainder loaded in the Eastern Division. For statistical purposes, the Eastern and Western Divisions are separated by an imaginary line running from Thunder Bay to Armstrong, Ontario. Freight loaded at Thunder Bay is included in the Western Division while loadings at Armstrong are reported in the Eastern Division.
Available on CANSIM: table 404-0002.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2732.
The November 2011 issue of Monthly Railway Carloadings, Vol. 88, no. 11 (52-001-X, free), is now available from the Key resource module of our website under Publications.
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-866-500-8400; transportationstatistics@statcan.gc.ca), Transportation Division.
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