Border Volume September 2023 CN and CPKC

RailState, the rail industry’s only provider of real-time rail network visibility, independently tracks all freight rail movements across Canada in real-time. 

This report covers carload movements across the border into the United States.  

Southbound

Southbound rail volume into the United States remained largely unchanged from August. Total carload volume fell 0.7% in September. CN’s southbound volume dropped 1.8% while CPKC had a moderate increase of 1.1%. 

The market share split between the two railroads also remained mostly unchanged with CN moving 61% of carloads across the border into the United States.

 

Northbound

Volume into showed bigger differences between the railroads but overall volume increased a mere 0.2%. CN had a moderate drop of 3.3% in September and CPKC increased carload volumes by 6.4%. 

September was the sixth consecutive month of northbound volumes outpacing southbound volumes. There was a net difference of 9096 more carloads moving northbound into Canada in September.

Northbound into Canada CN and CPKC

Car Type Breakdown


Both CN and CPKC grew the proportion of hoppers moving southbound. This coincides with the start of the grain harvest, so increased volume of hoppers makes sense. CN moved 12% more hoppers in September and CPKC moved 6% more.

Border Pie CN September 2023
CPKC border pie september 2023

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