October 30, 2026
Statistics Canada reports that Canadian railways transported 32.8 million tonnes of freight in August, up 8.0% compared with August 2025.
The overall freight volume in August 2026 was above the previous five-year average of 30.4 million tonnes for the month, with higher loadings of agricultural products - notably grain - more than offsetting continuing declines in iron ores and coal.
The year-over-year increase in total freight carried in August reflected higher volumes of traffic across all three main freight components: domestic non-intermodal loadings (mainly commodities), domestic intermodal loadings (mainly containers) and freight traffic received from US rail connections.
Rail intermodal shipments - mainly containers - originating in Canada increased 4.7% year over year to 3.3 million tonnes. This year-over-year increase followed five consecutive months of year-over-year decline.
Freight traffic arriving from the United States increased to 4.0 million tonnes, up for the seventh straight month. Loadings were up sharply (+14.6%) compared with the same month in 2025 and were above the previous five-year average for the month of August (3.8 million tonnes).