US coal carloads were at 70,831 in the week ended January 11, up 1.5% from 69,757 a week earlier, but 18.6% lower than 87,228 in the year-ago week, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday. The latest week was the lowest total for the corresponding week in over 10 years. Coal carloads represented 14.1% of all the traffic on US railways, down from 16.8% a week earlier and 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 – were at 7,423 carloads, up from 7,045 in the prior week, but down from 7,777 in the year-ago week. Of the four major Class I […]