US coal carload volumes declined for the second straight week and continued to fall below year-ago levels.
For the week that ended October 14, the AAR reported 86,292 coal carloads traveled US railways, down 1.4% from the previous week and down 1.6% from the year-ago week.
Coal shipments have fallen in five of the last six weeks and have remained below year-ago levels for five straight weeks.
Despite recent declines during the fall shoulder season, year-to-date coal counts rose 11.5%, or about 359,000 carloads, compared with the first 41 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 fall to 7,157 coal carloads, down 3.7% from the previous week, but up 5.3% from the same week last year.
Canadian coal volumes are up 6.2% year to date.
