Total U.S. coal rail traffic for the week ended Dec. 14 fell 20.6% year over year to 72,320 carloads, according to data from the Association of American Railroads.

Year-to-date coal rail traffic for the week decreased 8.8% year over year, while total rail traffic for the week dropped 8.5% year over year to 520,589 carloads and intermodal units.

BNSF Railway Co. coal shipment volumes totaled 34,060 carloads in the week ended Dec. 14, down 0.6% from the previous week's 34,261 carloads and down 16.6% compared with 40,859 carloads in the same period a year ago.

Union Pacific Corp. shipped 17,445 carloads of coal for the week, increasing 7.6% from 16,217 carloads in the previous week and falling 21% from the previous year's weekly volume of 22,221 carloads.

CSX Transportation Inc.'s coal shipment volumes were 14,233 carloads, up about 5.1% from 13,535 carloads in the prior week and decreasing 21.4% year over year from 18,114 carloads.

Norfolk Southern Corp. shipped 14,886 carloads of coal in the week, declining 4.8% week over week from 15,644 carloads and plummeting 26.6% year over year from 20,285 carloads.

Kansas City Southern's latest weekly coal shipment volumes totaled 2,851 carloads, 11.1% higher than the previous week's 2,566 carloads. The railroad serves 10 U.S. states and Mexico.