This trend will continue as the administration pushes it's war on coal. I know of a coal mine that is a class act. It has had over 50 citations by MSHA in the last two months. Most if not all of them are frivolous. Even the truck drivers that haul coal out of there are harassed unmercifully and forced to wait for up to six hours for “inspections” of the trucks. They are not even allowed to warn other drivers of the delay. The goal is clearly to shut the mine down. Who needs those icky, dirty ol jobs anyway?
That graphic is completely misleading. While coal traffic was down 10.5% (according to trade rag Progressive Railroading)... if you look at
all loading, the year on year US carload change in down 3.3% from 2011 to 2012.
You are comparing different commodities here on volume... pricing and the market have everything to do with unit trainloadings for coal. If power plants are moving to DIRT CHEAP natural gas... you would see less coal use, right?
Right.
