December 04, 2025
Statistics Canada reports that Canadian railways transported 31.3 million tonnes of freight in September, slightly below (-0.7%) September 2024 levels. Strong growth in carloadings of wheat and other cereal grains tempered a lower volume of freight traffic from US rail connections.
Year-to-date through September 2025, total cargo moved by rail amounted to 280.7 million tonnes, marginally below (-0.1%) the same January-to-September period in 2024.
In September 2025, non-intermodal freight traffic in Canada was up 2.8% year over year to 25.4 million tonnes, driven by large increases in the loadings of wheat and other cereal grains.
Intermodal shipments originating from Canada - mainly containers - continued their upward trend, rising 5.0% year over year to 3.1 million tonnes. This was the seventh straight month of year-over-year increases.
Container volume reached its fifth-highest tonnage on record for the month of September - reflecting demand for consumer goods.
Freight traffic arriving from the United States dropped sharply year over year in September 2025, and for the eighth month in a row. Tonnage fell 26.7% from the same month in 2024 to 2.9 million tonnes - the lowest volume recorded for the month of September in almost 10 years.