US coal carload volumes were at a five-week high 87,348 in the week ended March 24, up 1.6% from a week earlier and 10.1% higher year on year, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.
It was also the fifth straight week to outpace both 2016 and 2017.
However, the weekly volume was down 7.8% from the five-year average of 94,718.
Since January 1, US coal carloads have totaled 1.01 million, down 1% from the same period in 2017.
Of the total traffic on US railways, 16.6% were coal carloads, up from 16% a week earlier and 15.1% in the same period a year earlier. It was the highest weekly coal share since 16.8% in the week ended January 6.
Coal originations on Canadian railroads -- including the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin -- were at a 2018-high 7,923 carloads during the week, up 4.2% from the previous week and 3.4% year on year.
Of the four major Class I railroads, Union Pacific and BNSF saw the highest year-on-year increases with 21,545 coal carloads and 36,775 carloads in the latest week, up 8% and 7.9%, respectively.
It was the first occurrence that all four railroads tracked higher than the year-ago week since the week ended August 19.
