According to its latest coal loading performance report, UP loaded 1031 trains in the PRB last month. Last August, 1190 loaded trains left the region.

It said 86 loading opportunities were missed, but only five of those were attributable to the company. A total of 22 stemmed from the source mines while 59 were attributable to utility plants.

UP loaded 251 coal trains in the Colorado/Utah region in August, a drop from 322 trains last August. Lower plant demand and coal production issues both led to the depressed results.

Last month, the rail hauler marked a quarter century of moving coal from Wyoming’s Southern Powder River Basin.

The first loaded UP and former Chicago and North Western coal train departed the region in 1984 and traveled over a brand-new, 107-mile rail line built between Joyce, Nebraska, and Shawnee Junction, Wyoming. The first SPRB shipment went from North Antelope, Wyoming, to Newark, Arkansas.

C&NW merged with UP in 1995.

"Capital investment in our coal corridor clearly has paid dividends for our customers over the past 25 years and has brought abundant, low-cost, low-sulfur coal to US electrical power plants,” UP vice-president and general manager of energy Doug Glass said.