Coal traffic is up

[atrainguy60]

http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/fred-frailey ... -back.aspx

For those who can't view it, Fred Frailey says that Powder River Coal traffic is up 39 percent, or up 10 more trains a day, in the last ten weeks. Eastern coal is up, but not as high. He points out natural gas prices getting higher could be a reason. Coal still isn't as high as last year. Still interesting stuff.

UP is up 48%

NS is up 14%

CSX is up 12%

[AARR]

According to a Trains Magazine article from earlier this year all coal will grow marginally except eastern coal which will decline and Illinois coal which should grow significantly.

[MSchwiebert]

Which is entirely logical, cost to mine eastern Appalachian coal - compared to Illinois/Indiana coal will make it non-competitive. Fact of the matter is that in this era of reduced usage, many of the "traditional" coal areas may as well be considered "mined out" as it's just too expensive to go after what's left compared to other mining areas.

According to a Trains Magazine article from earlier this year all coal will grow marginally except eastern coal which will decline and Illinois coal which should grow significantly.

[CSXBOY]

As we speak there is a Powder River Basin Coal train with BNSF power heading north towards Bay City, MI. I saw that on the Fostoria Ohio webcam on Railstream. A half hour later came another coal train but it was CSX power turning to go south. Coal is going up quite a bit thats good

[GreatLakesRailfan]

As we speak there is a Powder River Basin Coal train with BNSF power heading north towards Bay City, MI. I saw that on the Fostoria Ohio webcam on Railstream. A half hour later came another coal train but it was CSX power turning to go south. Coal is going up quite a bit thats good

Are you sure it's heading for Bay City? I thought Huron & Eastern/CN still had the contract for the Essexville coal. Could it have been one of the DTE coal trains instead?