Something good is happening north of the US-Canada border when it comes to intermodal. The Canadian intermodal network has been bulking up as if on steroids so far this year, and things show little sign of abating.

The Association of American Railroads reports weekly volume numbers by commodity for all the major North American railroads, and the figures are in for week 26, closing out the second quarter of 2017. Overall, North American originations of intermodal containers and trailers were up 5.4 percent versus the same period in 2016 — not bad! But Canadian volume, defined as volume originating on Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, collectively was up 13 percent over the same time frame.

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Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) data provide some color to the gains. The table at right displays intermodal revenue movements for 2017 through May by region or region-pair. Our analysis has divided the intermodal market by equipment type. International consists of revenue movements of ISO containers (20-foot, 40-foot, and 45-foot) and domestic includes movements of larger 53-foot containers (and 48-foot to the small extent that they still move) as well as trailers.

The data show that the forward momentum for Canadian intermodal is widespread, encompassing the international and domestic sectors, as well as all Canadian regions plus the cross-border trade with the United States.

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