Statistics Canada reports that Canadian railways transported 30.9 million tonnes of freight in January, down 4.2% compared with January 2025. While the overall freight volume was down, it was just above the previous five-year average of 30.7 million tonnes for the month of January.

The federal agency notes that the freight traffic decline reflected lower volumes across all types of rail operations: non-intermodal loadings (mainly commodities), intermodal loadings (mainly containers) as well as freight loadings from US rail connections.

In January, non-intermodal freight loadings in Canada were down 3.8% year over year to 24.6 million tonnes, with broad-based declines for many commodities.

Intermodal shipments-mainly containers-originating in Canada declined for the first time after increasing year over year for 10 consecutive months. Tonnage edged down 3.4% from January 2025 to reach 3.0 million tonnes in January 2026.

Rail freight received from the United States declined year over year for the 12th consecutive month in January 2026, down 7.7% to 3.4 million tonnes.

 

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