US coal carload counts increased for the second week and have reached a level last seen in February, Association of American Railroads data showed Wednesday.
For the week ending July 22, the AAR reported 88,304 coal carloads traveled US railways, up 2% from the previous week and up 7% from the year-ago week.
Volumes were last higher the week ending February 18 at 90,927 carloads. Coal counts year to date are up 16.4%, or about 338,000 carloads, compared to the first 29 weeks of 2016.
Canadian railroads -- which include the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, and Canadian Pacific -- saw originations slide to 6,728 coal carloads, down 6.8% from the previous week and down 6.6% from the same week last year.
Canadian coal volumes are up 3.8% year to date.
