Reading & Northern Railroad (R&N), a privately held railroad company serving customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties, shipped more than 1 million tons of Anthracite coal in 2025 for the third straight year. Most of the shipments were sent to electric-arc furnace steel mills located nationwide.
“This was an impressive feat considering the downturn in export volume in 2025,” the company said in a statement.
The domestic market, which mainly supports American steel production, is the majority of R&N’s Anthracite business. Last year, the business segment grew nearly 20 percent, and the company purchased additional covered hopper railcars to support the growth. The railcars are expected for delivery during the first two months of 2026. The company expects to continue to purchase additional equipment through the year to support the increase in demand.
Reading & Northern Railroad owns a fleet of nearly 2,000 railcars, operates more than 400 miles of track, and employs more than 400 people. It is the largest privately owned railroad in Pennsylvania, serving Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill, and Wyoming counties. The railroad also operates passenger excursions.
The company expects to deliver 40,000 carloads of freight this year, removing the equivalent of more than 220,000 trucks from the highway.