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After a miserable March and April, weather in the Powder River Basin (PRB) hasn’t improved much so far in May for BNSF Railway Co.

Severe storms limited coal mine train loadings during the month’s first 10 days. As a result, BNSF loaded an average of 45.1 trains per day in the PRB compared with 50.9 trains during May 2006’s first 10 days. The railroad lost an average of 8.8 train loading opportunities per day, according to BNSF.

To maintain network fluidity and prevent bunching of empty trains, BNSF plans to work with PRB mines to remove coal train sets from service and continue to adjust the number of sets to match coal production and demand.

Systemwide through 10 days, the railroad loaded 7.2 million tons of coal compared with 7.9 million tons during the same 2006 period.