Canadian rail carloadings jump 7.5% in December

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OTTAWA, Ont. -- The Canadian railway industry carried 23.2 million tonnes of freight in December, a 7.5% gain from December 2009, according to a report from Statistics Canada.
Officials say the gain was the result of increased loadings by the industry's core transportation systems, non-intermodal and intermodal, and international freight loadings from the US.
Compared with December 2009, non-intermodal loadings rose 6.1% to 18.6 million tonnes in December. The commodity groups with the largest gains in tonnage were potash, coal and colza seeds (canola). Overall, 36 of the 63 commodity groups registered an increase in freight loadings for the month.
Intermodal freight loadings, comprised of containers and trailers on flat cars, rose 8.9% from December 2009 to 2.1 million tonnes in December. The increase was solely the result of a rise in containerized cargo shipments, StatsCan officials said.
On an international scale, traffic received from the US destined for or passing through Canada rose 18.8% from December 2009 to 2.4 million tonnes in December.