RailState

Combined container volume through the Port of Vancouver increased to 72,366 in September, up 10.3% from August and 37.0% higher than September 2023.

Overall freight volume westbound to the Port of Vancouver was nearly unchanged from July, despite the work stoppage across both railways.

With a work stoppage causing a shutdown of more than a day on CN and 4 days on CPKC, combined container volume through the Port of Vancouver was 65,632. This total is down 2.8% from July yet 7.8% higher than August 2023.

With a flurry of activity between the government, railways, and union groups over recent days, it has been hard to know what’s happening on the ground without an independent source of data.

On Sunday, August 25, total train movements across both railways were less than half (48.5%) of the average daily volume before the work stoppage on August 22.

At 12:01am this morning, the work stoppage on CN and CPKC began and RailState’s network captured the immediate impact. Train movements dropped from more than 725 train on an average day to about 60 total across the network.

Overall freight volume westbound to the Port of Vancouver fell 7.4% compared to June, all driven by lower volumes on CN due to the Jasper Fire shutdown.

With CN’s main line into Alberta shut down due to the Jasper Fire, total container volume through the western Canada ports fell to 80,724 containers in July.