With merger speculation rampant in the industry, CSX Corp. Chief Executive Joe Hinrichs doesn’t think the Jacksonville-based railroad company needs to find a partner.
Hinrichs said he believes the big railroads can move freight across the country by working better together, without a merger.
“There’s nothing physically stopping us from making the interchanges efficient,” Hinrichs said Sept. 11 at a Morgan Stanley investor conference in California.
“There’s nothing technically stopping us. It’s more desire and will and partnerships,” he said.
The July 29 merger agreement between CSX’s eastern U.S. rival, Norfolk Southern Corp., and western railroad Union Pacific Corp. created speculation that CSX would have to merge with the other major western railroad, BNSF Railway, to compete.
CSX instead announced an intermodal agreement with BNSF to provide coast-to-coast freight service.
CSX then announced an agreement with Canada-based CN on Sept. 9 to provide an intermodal connection in Nashville, Tennessee, to help transport freight from Canada’s west coast.
Hinrichs said since he started at CSX three years ago, he thought the major railroads were more interested in growing their own business than collaborating.
“I’ve been imploring this industry to work better together to grow the pie for all of us and serve customers better,” he said.
But he thinks the environment has changed.
“Right now we have an opportunity where people are saying, you know what, let’s just work together to go work on these issues,” Hinrichs said.
“The opportunity is here to grow the pie for all of us.”
Hinrichs said it is premature for him to talk about the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern deal until more information is available as the companies file their merger application with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board and also file their proxy statements for shareholders.
Hinrichs said CSX is close to completing two major infrastructure projects that disrupted its rail network this year.
One is a planned renovation project of a tunnel in Baltimore. The other is a rebuilding of a rail line in Tennessee that was severely damaged by Hurricane Helene last year.
Both were expected to be completed by the end of 2025, but Hinrichs said the work is ahead of schedule.
CSX expects to run its first train through the tunnel in Baltimore by the end of September and to open the Tennessee tracks in the first week of October.
“We’re going to beat the clock on that,” Hinrichs said.
He said CSX’s train performance metrics show the railroad is “running about as well as it ever has” since May, and the completion of those two projects should improve the performance even more.
“Right now our network’s in fabulous shape,” he said.
Hinrichs said the company has been fortunate that the eastern U.S. hasn’t had to deal with any hurricanes this year.
“So far, it’s been a pretty quiet season. Hopefully, it will stay that way for the rest of the year.”