The number of US coal carloads transported in the week that ended June 9 jumped to 85,160 from 76,242 a week earlier, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday. It was the highest weekly volume seen since 87,348 were transported in the week that ended March 24.
For the second straight week, however, the latest week was down 0.3% from 85,516 in the year-ago week and was only the fourth time in the last 16 weeks to track lower than the corresponding week of 2017.
Coal carloads represented 15.2% of all the traffic on US railways, up from 15% a week earlier, but down from 15.7% in the year-ago week.
Coal originations on Canadian railroads -- including the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin -- climbed to 7,467, up from a 13-week low of 6,538 a week earlier and also up from 7,205 in the year-ago week.
It was the second time that all four major Class I railroads saw week-on-week increases and was the fifth such occurrence this year.
Of the four major Class I railroads, BNSF saw the biggest weekly increase, with carloads jumping 17.5% to 36,226. That total was also 5% higher than the year-ago week's.
Since January 1, BNSF coal carloads are up to 801,744, down 1.1% compared with the year-ago period.
Union Pacific reported a 14-week high of 21,840 in the latest week, up 14.7% from the prior week, but down 9.5% from the year-ago week. So far in 2018, UP carloads are up to 463,604, down 5.7% from the same period a year earlier.
Norfolk Southern and CSX reported carloads of 20,248 and 15,318, up 12.4% and 1.6%, respectively, from the previous week. Since January, cumulative carload totals for NS and CSX are up to 432,881 and 352,538, down 1.2% and up 3.7%, respectively, compared with the year-ago period.
