Total U.S. coal rail traffic for the week ended Dec. 8 fell 1.2% year over year to 88,543 carloads, according to data from the Association of American Railroads.

Year-to-date coal rail traffic dropped 0.7% through the week, while total rail traffic increased 3.1% year over year to 570,225 carloads and intermodal units.

BNSF Railway Co. coal shipment volumes clocked in at 39,526 carloads in the week ended Dec. 8, increasing less than 1% from the previous week's 39,239 carloads and increasing 5.1% compared to 37,619 carloads in the year-ago week.

Union Pacific Corp.'s coal shipment volumes this week were at 22,431 carloads, rising 2.1% from 21,980 carloads the previous week but falling 6.9% compared to the previous year's weekly volume of 24,094.

Eastern railroad CSX Transportation Inc.'s shipment volumes of coal stood at 16,558 carloads, down 4.8% from the previous week's 17,397 carloads and falling 4.6% compared to 17,351 carloads the same week in 2017.

Norfolk Southern Corp.'s coal shipment volumes totaled 18,100 carloads for the week, sliding 10.7% from the previous week's 20,278 carloads and down 5.1% compared to 19,078 carloads the same week a year ago.

Kansas City Southern's latest weekly coal shipment volume was 2,308 carloads, down 14.2% from 2,690 carloads the previous week. The railroad serves 10 U.S. states and Mexico.

Data collected by S&P Global Market Intelligence from railroads indicate both cars originated on their lines during the week and cars received from a connecting railroad during the same week.