US coal carload volumes fell 1% week on week to 89,808 carloads, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.
The latest total was 2% higher than the year-ago level but slightly down from what was a three-month high of 90,747 carloads of the previous week.
Despite the declines seen in the fourth quarter, coal counts year to date are up 8.4%, or about 324,000 carloads, compared to the first 49 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 dip to 7,757 coal carloads, down 5.5% from the previous week but up 11.9% from the same week last year.
Canadian coal volumes are up 5.8% year to date.
