Canadian Rail Freight Record Possible

OTTAWA - Jan 25/06 - SNS -- Unusually heavy grain movement in November could lift tonnage carried by Canada's railways to record levels in the closing quarter of the 2005 calendar, believes Statistics Canada.

Overall, railways loaded 24.9 million metric tons (MT) of freight in November, down slightly from October. However, for October and November combined in 2005, total freight reached nearly 50 million metric MT. This was almost one million more MT than railways loaded in the same two months a year earlier.

Total tonnage of non-intermodal goods reached 22.5 million MT in November, a slight 0.6% decline from October. About 285,000 railcars were needed to load all of November's non-intermodal freight.

Railways carried less coal and mineral ores and concentrates in November. But this decline was offset by large volumes of grains, non-metallic minerals and petroleum products.

This observed shift in commodities, with total monthly loadings remaining relatively unchanged, could reflect the possibility that railways were working at near-peak capacity.

On the grain front, volumes of "other cereal grains" reached a five-year high, as loadings surpassed 656 000 metric MT.

Intermodal loadings, that is, containers and trailers hauled on flat cars, slid 1.4% from October to 2.4 million MT. Freight coming from the United States either destined for or passing through Canada reached 2.5 million MT, up 7.2% from October.

On a year-over-year basis, non-intermodal tonnage was slightly above that of November 2004. Intermodal traffic was up 3.3%, while traffic received from the United States was up 3.9%.