Canada Ports Rail Volume Report: October 2023
RailState, the rail industry’s only provider of real-time rail network visibility, independently tracks all freight rail movements across Canada in real-time.
Western Ports
Port of Vancouver
Total train volume westbound to the Port of Vancouver increased 11.6% in October. The biggest gain came from Grain trains, which jumped 30.7% from 179 trains in September to 234 trains in October. This growth coincides with the Canadian grain harvest. We expect the volume of grain trains to remain high for the coming months.
The total carload traffic into the Port of Vancouver was evenly divided between CN and CPKC, with CPKC moving just over 474 carloads more than CN in October.
Prince Rupert
The Port of Prince Rupert also saw an increase in total train volume in October. As was seen at the Port of Vancouver, the increase in train volume is mostly from the growth in volume of Grain trains. Grain volume grew from 27 trains in September to 37 trains in October.
Eastern Ports
Halifax
Train volume to Halifax grew 16.9% in October, mainly from a 42% increase in grain trains.
Port of Sydney
Train volume to the Port of Sydney increased slightly, adding 3 additional manifest trains in October compared to September.
Thunder Bay
Train volume to Thunder Bay dropped 7% in October. After more than doubling grain train volume in September, grain volume fell back 13% in October. The largest gain was in automotive train traffic, which grew from 2 trains in September to 11 in October.
CPKC moves significantly more volume through Thunder Bay than CN. In September, CPKC moved twice as many carloads into Thunder Bay than CN. In October, that ratio increased further, to nearly 3:1.
