Houston — The average revenue for coal on the four major US railroads was $17.60/st in the third quarter, down 16 cents from the previous quarter, Surface Transportation Board data showed Monday.

From the year-ago quarter, the average per ton was down $1.18/st.

The quarterly commodity statistics, which are submitted by the railroads but not verified by the STB, show CSX had the highest average third-quarter coal price of $20.81/st, down from $22.24/st in the year-ago quarter, while Norfolk Southern had the lowest at $15.05/st, down from $16.58/st.

Union Pacific revenues per ton totaled $18.15/st, while BNSF's were $16.38/st in Q3, down from $19.15/st and $17.16/st year on year, respectively.

Quarter over quarter, only BNSF and UP increased in revenue/ton, up 1% and 1.7%, respectively, while CSX and NS dropped 2.1% and 3.3%, respectively.

Compared with the year-ago quarter, all four railroads were down in revenue/ton. NS dropped the most, down 9.2%, while CSX followed with a 6.4% drop. UP revenue/ton fell 5.2% and BNSF fell 4.6%.

The figures, which are accessible by the public and signed by railroad executives, showed BNSF moved 482,128 carloads of coal of all types in the third quarter, or over 57.6 million st, with total revenues of about $944 million.

By comparison, the railroad moved 504,009 carloads in the year-ago quarter, or about 60.3 million st, with revenues of $1 billion.

CSX moved 204,778 carloads in Q3, or over 23 million st, with revenues of almost $481 million, compared with carloads of 219,237 in Q3 2018, carrying over 24.8 million st with over $551 million in revenues.

NS third-quarter carloads totaled 204,040 with 23.2 million st, down from 239,487 with 27.3 st in the year-ago quarter. Revenues were about $350 million, down from nearly $453 million in Q3 2018.

UP Q3 carloads totaled 252,300, compared with 305,794 in the year-ago quarter. Third-quarter tonnage was 30 million st, compared with about 36.3 million st in Q3 2018, while revenues in the most recent quarter totaled about $544 million, down from $696 million.

-- Olivia Kalb, olivia.kalb@spglobal.com

-- Edited by Zac Aiuppa, newsdesk@spglobal.com