CSX Corp. Chief Executive Steve Angel wasn’t happy in retirement after stepping down as CEO of Linde plc in 2022.
But it wasn’t until the opportunity to join CSX came in September 2025 that the 70-year-old found the right fit, Angel said at an investor conference.
“I flunked retirement. I tried that. It’s boring,” Angel said at the Barclay’s Annual Industrial Select Conference in Miami Beach on Feb. 19.
“I’m kind of wired for the day-to-day,” he said.
Angel said he wasn’t actively seeking a new position and he was approached about other jobs, but he wasn’t enthusiastic about those companies’ products or culture.
“But when this (CSX) hit me, I remembered what it was like in the old days, and I remembered the fact that, you know, I really think this is a fascinating industry,” he said.
“Everything about this industry is fascinating to me, and so that brought me off the sidelines.”
Angel began his career at General Electric, spending 22 years with that company.
“Actually, I think one of the most fun jobs I ever had, interesting jobs, is when I sold locomotives to the railroads” at GE, he said.
“So that kind of was an attraction to me. It never really left me.”
When he was at GE doing business with railroads,” I got a chance to interact with all of the characters, saw how they ran the railroads, their operating philosophy, really got an appreciation for the history of the railroads and the importance to the American economy,” Angel said.
“I mean, there’s nothing like railroads anywhere, anywhere on the planet,” he said. “In many ways, railroads are the heartbeat of the American economy.”
Angel said railroading gets in people’s blood and they want to stay in the industry, and their children often follow them. That doesn’t happen in other industries, he said.
“You’re not going to walk into the offices at Meta or Google and meet fourth- and fifth-generation employees. I mean, it’s that kind of heritage, it runs that deep,” he said.
CSX has “a great group of people in Jacksonville, Florida, and all up and down our system on the East Coast. I think they’re very receptive to leadership,” he said.
While Angel has worked with CSX and other railroads, he is still new to the task of running a railroad.
When Angel was asked at the conference about improving service issues on the company’s rail network, he acknowledged his lack of experience.
“Everything I do is working with somebody else. I don’t know how to do anything, but I can work with the team, help focus them on what’s most important, and help them execute,” he said.
Angel said he has worked to simplify CSX’s approach to operating metrics to gauge the company’s performance.
“The most important metrics to me are operating income growth,” he said. “To get earnings per share growth, I need operating income growth.”
He’s also focused on safety metrics.
“It’s a sacred responsibility in this industry, and you have to get that right,” he said.
Angel was brought in as chief executive as CSX to replace Joe Hinrichs, and analysts have speculated the move was made because Angel would be more receptive to merger proposals.
The railroad industry has been surrounded by speculation since Union Pacific Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. agreed in July to merge.
Angel did not directly address the issue of possible deals for CSX at the conference.
“Anytime you have consolidation inside an industry, for the rest of the participants, it can create some challenges in terms of risk that you need to go manage, which is what CSX will do,” he said.
He said CSX is not putting a lot of focus on industry consolidation.
“We may have five people – maybe not that many – at Jacksonville that work on this every day, and I got 23,000 people trying to run a railroad better,” he said.
“We have lots of opportunity to improve CSX as a standalone company, which is where we’re focused,” he said.
“I’m confident we’re going to be well-positioned no matter how it shakes out, but I’m not going to get hyper-focused on that when I know what I’ve got to do every day and can do every day running CSX.”