The company’s newest report for May 2010 showed that 896 loaded coal trains departed the region, compared with 887 trains in May 2009.

UP had 106 missed loading opportunities in SPRB last month with 19 of these attributable to the railroad. Of the balance of the missed loads, 69 were attributable to utility plants and 18 to mines.

However, most of those were offset by the 103 extra loads the hauler, which works primarily in the western US coalfields, picked up.

In the Colorado/Utah region, Union Pacific’s other primary coalfield operations area, 191 trains were loaded in May compared with 193 last May. Customer maintenance outages and higher stockpiles were cited for the reduction in origin demand.

UP reported a sizeable year-on-year increase in loadings for April, loading 916 trains in the southern Powder River Basin compared with 835 trains in April 2009.

In the Colorado/Utah Region, UP loaded 229 trains, compared with 219 in the corresponding month last year. The shipper cited seasonal transition, two major longwall moves and higher than typical utility stockpiles for the impact on loadings for that period.

UP missed 117 loading opportunities in the SPRB in April, 21 attributable to the company. The missed loadings, it noted, were offset in part by 73 additional loadings during the month.

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