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1/3/2022
The Railway Association of Canada (RAC) last week released the 29th edition of its Rail Trends report, which highlights the performance of Canadian railways from 2011 through 2020.
The year 2020 was “like no other,” said RAC President and CEO Marc Brazeau in a press release.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented impacts on workers, businesses and governments in Canada and around the world. Still, Canadian railroads continued to deliver services to industries, communities and passengers, RAC officials said.
Freight railroads operated efficiently under evolving restrictions, protecting employee health while delivering essentials such as energy products, personal protective equipment, medicines, vaccines, and agricultural and food products. On the passenger side, intercity and commuter railways kept trains running, providing essential transportation services to Canadians.
Unfortunately, restrictions caused many tourism railroads to cancel their 2020 operations, RAC noted.
When it comes to safety, the freight accident rate in 2020 improved by 15.1% to 1.82 accidents per billion gross ton-miles. Moreover, the dangerous goods accident rate improved by 35.6% to 0.17 accidents per 1,000 dangerous goods carloads — the lowest rate in the past decade.
In terms of sustainability, freight fuel efficiency in 2020 improved by 4.3% to 223 revenue tonne-kilometers per liter, the best on record.
Two years ago, Canadian railroads also spent CA$2.6 billion on infrastructure, equipment and technologies, the second-highest level on record, trailing only 2019's CA$3.1 billion.