What CEOs Are Saying: US Railroads

Earnings calls from Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, and CSX

Quote of the week

You can't operate a railroad that's spread out across the entire country and think you're going to make every decision from Omaha.

—Jim Vena, CEO of Union Pacific, on why frontline workers make the decisions that keep the railroad running

America has had transcontinental rail service since 1869, but no single company has ever owned track from one coast to the other. Freight crossing the country still gets handed off from a western railroad to an eastern one somewhere around the Mississippi, which adds days. Union Pacific’s roughly $85 billion bid for Norfolk Southern would end that handoff and put one owner’s track from Los Angeles to the Atlantic. The Surface Transportation Board accepted the merger application in May and is still reviewing it, and a decision isn’t expected until 2027.

Three of the big US railroads reported last week, and the merger features in each call. We have Union Pacific (the buyer), Norfolk Southern (the target), and CSX (the one large railroad …