6 Rail Transportation

ENERGY

Class I railways (including VIA Rail) consumed about 1.76 billion litres of fuel in 1990 and 1.77 billion litres in 2001, as can be seen in Addendum Table A6-5. Over this same period, however, output in terms of revenue tonne-kilometres (RTKms) increased by 30 per cent, from about 225 billion to about 293 billion RTKms, as can be seen in Addendum Table A6-6. The Class I carriers have therefore significantly increased their fuel efficiency, although they still accounted for 88.4 per cent of total sector fuel consumption in 2001. This increasing fuel efficiency is due largely to important investments by CN and CPR in new locomotive replacement programs in the latter half of the 1990s, to changes in operating practices, and to a reduction in operations over low-density lines, which for the most part were transferred to other operators.

Table 6-5 compares output in the railway sector in 2000 and 2001.

1 Estimated for several carriers.

Source: Transport Canada, Statistics Canada

Table 6-6 compares fuel consumption in the railway sector in 2000 and 2001.

1 Estimated for several carriers.

Source: Transport Canada, Statistics Canada

Regional railway fuel consumption and output have both remained relatively stable in recent years. Fuel efficiency of regional railways has been higher than Class I railways until recently, but this level of performance by regional railways has been due largely to the extraordinary fuel efficiency of Quebec North Shore & Labrador Railway, which, as a result of the nature of its operations, has experienced fuel efficiencies almost double the industry norm.

Major Events in 2002

Infrastructure

Industry Structure

Employment

Energy

Freight Transportation

Passenger Traffic

Price, Productivity and Financial Performance