Houston — US coal carload originations totaled 93,248, up 2.9% from the prior week, American Association of Railroads data showed Wednesday.
Carloads for the most recently concluded week come in second only to the year-high 93,324 carloads in the week that ended August 4.
Despite the increase, carloads fell 4.6% from the year-ago week and dropped 12.8% from the five-year average of 106,985.
Canadian coal carload originations totaled 8,034, bringing combined US and Canada carloads to 101,282. The combined total dipped 0.4% from the corresponding 2017 week.
The year-high for Canadian carloads was 9,070 in the week that ended April 7.
Three of the four major Class 1 railroads increased carloads week on week.
CSX was the only rail to drop in traffic, down 2.9% from the prior week. The rail fell to 18,868 carloads from its year-high 19,430 carloads the week before.
But CSX rose 12.2% from the year-ago week, leaving it the only rail to see a rise from the 2017 week.
BNSF rose 3.5% week on week to 39,907 carloads, but dropped 6.5% from the year-ago week.
Union Pacific rail rose 1.1% from the prior week to 24,380 carloads, nearing the year-high for the railroad of 24,404 carloads for the week that ended August 4.
UP carloads also dropped 6.8% from its corresponding week in 2017.
Norfolk Southern rail increased to 19,952 carloads, up 4.7% week on week. But the rail also saw a 4.3% drop from the year-ago week.
Combined carloads from the four railroads totaled 103,107, down 3.1% from the year-ago week amount of 106,395.
Carloads from January through the week that ended August 18 for the four railroads were 3 million carloads, down 1.9% from the 3.1 million carloads at the same point of 2017.
