Last month the railroad, which works primarily in the western US coalfields, loaded 916 trains in the southern Powder River Basin, versus 835 trains in April 2009.

In the Colorado/Utah region, UP loaded 229 trains compared to 219 a year ago. The shipper cited seasonal transition, two major longwall moves and higher-than-typical utility stockpiles for the impact on loadings.

UP missed 117 loading opportunities in the SPRB in April, 21 of which were attributable to the company. Another 78 were attributable to utility plans, 15 to mines and three to the joint line the shipper shares with fellow coal rail shipper BNSF Railway.

The missed loadings were offset in part by 73 additional loadings during the month.

The National Coal Transportation Association demand loading percentage for April was 97.4%, which was due in part to several unscheduled utility outages at the end of the month by SPRB customers; one of those outage issues is still being repaired. The NCTA demand percentage in the Colorado/Utah region was 102.2%.

UP marked a quarter-century of moving coal from Wyoming’s Southern Powder River Basin last August.