Canada’s two main railways face a bleak year ahead as a looming recession weighs on freight volumes. Carloads fell more than 17 per cent year over year last week, part of a growing decline in shipments since the start of the year and accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Association of American Railroads.
Volumes at Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. will likely be “severely impacted in the coming months” as industrial supply chains remain shut down and retail harshly curtailed, National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen said in a research note. “There is no question in our mind that freight volumes in the next few months are going to be severely depressed with no real historical precedent,” he