US coal carload volumes totaled 83,696 in the week ended March 10, down 1.9% from the previous week, but up 5.2% from the year-ago week, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday. It was the third straight week US coal carloads have tracked higher than both 2016 and 2017. Year to date, US coal carloads total 833,036, down 3.1% from the same period last year. Coal originations on Canadian railroads -- which include the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, and Canadian Pacific -- totaled 6,769 carloads during the week, up 8.9% from the previous week, but down 8.5% from the same week last year. For the year, Canadian carloads total 66,538, down 4.4% from last year.
