Total U.S. coal rail traffic for the week ended Dec. 7 fell 18.5% year over year to 72,402 carloads, according to data from the Association of American Railroads.

Year-to-date coal rail traffic for the week fell 8.6% year over year, while total rail traffic for the week dropped 9.4% year over year to 517,130 carloads and intermodal units.

BNSF Railway Co. coal shipment volumes totaled 34,261 carloads in the week ended Dec. 7, up about 1.4% from the previous week's 33,798 carloads and down 13.3% compared with 39,526 carloads in the same period a year ago.

Union Pacific Corp. shipped 16,217 carloads of coal for the week, increasing 2.2% from 15,866 carloads in the previous week and falling 27.7% from the previous year's weekly volume of 22,431 carloads.

CSX Transportation Inc. coal shipment volumes were 13,535 carloads, up about 26% from 10,742 carloads in the prior week and decreasing 18.3% year over year from 16,558 carloads.

Norfolk Southern Corp. shipped 15,644 carloads of coal in the week, up about 12.2% week over week from 13,948 carloads and falling 14.7% year over year from 18,344 carloads.

Kansas City Southern's latest weekly coal shipment volumes totaled 2,566 carloads, down 19.9% from the previous week's 3,202 carloads. The railroad serves 10 U.S. states and Mexico.