Railroad News

Rail News Home Norfolk Southern Railway 7/22/2021 Rail News: Norfolk Southern Railway
NS has reconfigured its Landers footprint to increase stacked container capacity by 60%. Photo – nscorp.com

Rail News Home CSX Transportation 7/22/2021 Rail News: CSX Transportation
CSX Corp. announced second-quarter 2021 net earnings of $1.2 billion, or 52 cents per share, compared to $499 million, or 22 cents per share in the same period last year.The results include benefits from the sale of certain property rights in CSX-owned line segments to Virginia for passenger-rail operations. The transaction favorably impacted operating income by $349 million, operating ratio by 11.7 percentage points, and earnings per share by 12 cents, CSX officials said in a press release.Revenue for the quarter rose 33% to $2.99 billion, driven by growth across all lines of business. Expenses fell 9% year over year to $1.30 billion and operating income improved to $1.69 billion.CSX posted a Q2 operating ratio of 43.4% compared to 63.3% in the previous year’s same quarter.The quarterly results also reflect strong rebound from the pandemic’s impact  during the same quarter in 2020.Specifically, CSX reported:
• Chemicals increased due to higher shipments of plastics, waste and other core chemicals, partially offset by lower shipments of crude oil;
• Agricultural and food products increased as a result of higher shipments of ethanol, food and consumer products, and domestic grain;
• Minerals increased primarily as a result of higher shipments of cement, lime and limestone;
• Automotive increased due to higher North American vehicle production, which was unfavorably impacted in Q2 2020 by COVID-19 plant closures;
• Forest products increased primarily due to higher shipments of building products and pulpboard;
• Metals and equipment increased due to higher shipments across the metals market, partially offset by reduced equipment shipments;
• Fertilizers increased due to higher long-haul fertilizer shipments, partially offset by lower short-haul phosphate shipments;
• Intermodal increased due to tightening truck capacity, inventory replenishments and growth in rail volumes from east coast ports; and
• Coal increased due to higher shipments across international export, domestic utility, and steel and industrial coal.

Rail News Home Union Pacific Railroad 7/22/2021 Rail News: Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad today reported 2021 second-quarter net income of $1.8 billion, or $2.72 per diluted share, compared to $1.1 billion, or $1.67 per diluted share, a year ago.The Class I leveraged volume growth, core pricing gains and productivity to produce record quarterly results, UP Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Lance Fritz said in a press release.Compared with Q2 2020 results, UP's operating revenue of $5.5 billion jumped 30%; business volumes, as measured by total revenue carloads, at 2 million units climbed 22%; and operating income of $2.5 billion soared 50%.UP's operating ratio improved to 55.1% during the quarter from 61% a year ago. Higher fuel prices negatively impacted the operating ratio by 210 basis points, UP officials said.Also during Q2, UP’s freight car velocity was 213 daily miles per car, a 6% decline; locomotive productivity was 140 gross ton-miles per horsepower day, a 3% improvement; average maximum train length was 9,410 feet, a 9% increase; and fuel consumption rate (measured in gallons of fuel per thousand gross ton-miles) improved 3%."Importantly, these strong results were achieved in a challenging environment as our rail network continues to be impacted by supply chain disruptions, particularly in the intermodal space," said Fritz. "As we move into the second half of 2021, we will continue working with our customers and the broader supply chain to increase fluidity and efficiently handle the strong demand for freight transportation."