Rail Facts

Rail is an innovative leader and the most environmentally efficient, safe and secure mode of ground transportation that moves the Canadian economy. Working closely with customers and communities, Rail moves over 73 million people and more than 70 per cent of all surface goods every year, relieving road congestion and limiting harmful emissions. Rail is a RightChoice^TM business.

Powering the Economy

• Canadian Rail is the third largest Rail network in the world.
• Rail in Canada handles the fourth largest volume of goods in the world.
• Two thirds of Canada's Rail traffic moves trans-border and overseas trade.
• Rail is a significant contributor to Canada's balance of payment gains from the movement of imports from third countries through Canadian ports into the United States by Rail.
• Private Rail companies in Canada are owned directly by tens of thousands of investors, including thousands of their own employees, and indirectly by millions of ordinary Canadians through savings and pension plans.
• Rail paid $1.9 billion in fuel, property taxes, sales and other forms of taxes in 2011.
• Rail pays more than $2.7 billion annually in wages and benefits.
• In 2011, Canada's Rail businesses invested $1.8 billion, a 6.5 per cent year-over-year increase, in new capital programs to support growth and service improvements.
• 70 per cent of Canada's exports rely on Rail transportation.

Helping Protect The Environment

• Canada's railways conserve fuel, are environmentally friendly and reduce highway congestion. One train, on average, moves the same tonnage of freight as 280 big trucks.
• Trains use a privately owned and financed right of way which is maintained and expanded to the tune of $1.8 billion in 2011 and on which rail operators paid $153 million in property taxes; trucks use a taxpayer funded roads.
• The overall transportation sector generates 27 per cent of Canada's GHGs, however, Rail produces only 3 per cent of this total while moving over 70 million people and more than 70 per cent of all surface goods every year.

Employing Canadians

• Rail currently employs more than 32,000 jobs and supports an additional 60,000 direct and indirect Rail supplier jobs.
• Approximately two million people work in businesses that rely on Rail to provide a growing, safe, secure, reliable, competitive and environmentally sustainable network.
• Average annual earnings in the Rail business, at $83,175, are amongst the highest in Canadian industry.

Safe, Secure and Getting Safer

• Rail provides by far the safest means of ground transportation in Canada, as officially measured by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.  
• Canadian Rail is the safest in North America:
• With 473.3 billion gross ton-miles (BGTM) moved, only 2.41 accidents/BGTM
• Accidents at railway crossings down 6.6 per cent y/y
• Trespasser accidents and fatalities down 17.3 per cent and 18.2 per cent y/y respectively
• Through the RAC, Rail companies in Canada are engaged in highly successful public information and education campaigns to reduce the number of crossing and trespassing incidents (Operation Lifesaver).
• Rail's safety performance is literally hundreds of times better than other modes of surface transportation.

Innovation, Making a Difference

• Canadian rail innovates and applies a number of different technologies for added safety, operational improvements and fuel efficiency.  
• LED (Light emitting diode) technology to make railway crossing lights more visible from farther distances.
• Retro-reflective material to make warning signage more visible when no railcar is present, and a strobe-light effect when a train is using the crossing.
• Digital technologies such as EDI, Internet applications and wireless communications that allow customers to place orders, check prices, trace cars, request plant switches, check bills, and perform various other functions in real-time.
• Advanced security x-ray technology at the border that allows customs officials to see the contents of cars.
• "Low idle" and automatic stop/start systems to increase fuel efficiency.
• Rail lubrication technology that deposits a thin bead of lubricant on the rail when a train passes to reduce friction, noise, wear and energy consumption.