Statistics Canada reports that the the volume of cargo carried in April by Canadian railways edged up (+0.6%) from April 2025 to 33.0 million tonnes.
The Federal Agency notes that the overall freight volume in April 2026 was above the five-year average of 32.2 million tonnes for the month, with higher carloadings of some agricultural products and other commodities offsetting large declines in coal and iron ores.
The year-over-year increase in total freight carried in April 2026 reflected a higher volume of freight traffic received from railway connections in the United States, as domestic non-intermodal loadings (mainly commodities) and intermodal loadings (mainly containers) both declined.
Domestic non-intermodal rail carloadings edged down 0.8% to 26.0 million tonnes in April compared with the same month in 2025, on large decreases in loadings of coal as well as iron ores and concentrates.
Rail intermodal shipments - mainly containers - originating in Canada declined year over year for the second month in a row, down 2.6% year over year to 3.2 million tonnes.
In April 2026, freight traffic arriving from the United States remained above the volume posted in the previous year for the third consecutive month. Tonnage grew sharply by 14.7% compared with the same month in 2025, reaching 3.8 million tonnes and matching the five-year average (3.8 million tonnes) for the month of April.