At Norfolk Southern, we're charting A Better Way Forward for our company, our customers, and the rail industry at large. By focusing on resilience and exceptional service, Team NS is driving growth and increasing productivity, all while continuing our mission to be the gold standard for safety.

Here are 10 ways we powered this progress in 2023 for our customers, our team, and our communities:

1. We enhanced safety at every level of our operations. At Norfolk Southern, everything starts with safety. In 2023, we committed to make our safe railroad even safer by partnering with Atkins Nuclear Secured (ANS) to bring the nuclear standard of safety to rail; by introducing a six-point safety plan to guide our actions; and by beginning work on our new regional safety training center in East Palestine that will provide ongoing, free training for first responders from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and the greater region.
2. We became the first Class I railroad to reach an agreement on paid sick leave for all craft railroaders. In partnership with our unions, we continue to listen to feedback and make strides to improve quality of life for our craft railroaders, including negotiating paid sick leave with all 12 of our unions.
3. We created a first-of-its-kind First & Final Mile Markets department. The new department aims to help our customers move their freight from the first mile to the last, providing integrated solutions that encompass rail, terminal, and trucking.
4. We worked with our drayage partners to reimagine how we work to better serve our intermodal customers. Through the revolutionary ModalView app, our intermodal customers will have a full and transparent view into their shipments and a seamless administrative experience.
5. We launched our first Digital Train Inspection Portal to further enhance rail safety across our network. The portals, which are being deployed at key points across our network, feature cutting-edge Machine Vision Inspection technology developed in partnership with the Georgia Tech Research Institute. By using ultra-high-res, 360-degree images of our passing railcars, the portals can proactively evaluate for potential defects with very high accuracy levels and very low false-positive rates.
6. We created two new grant programs, Safety First and Thriving Communities, that awarded nearly $5M to support 330 community and first responder organizations across our network. Safety First grants support first responders and public safety efforts in our communities while Thriving Communities grants promote sustainability initiatives, workforce development programs, and community resiliency efforts.
7. We launched a Rail Emissions tool, providing our customers with a way to calculate the carbon savings they achieve when they opt to move shipments by rail. Each year, Norfolk Southern helps our customers avoid 15 million metric tons of emissions. This customized data allows customers to track their sustainability progress, including total carbon dioxide emissions, fuel consumption, and train miles traveled.
8. We expanded our powerful intermodal franchise to give our customers an integrated, market-competitive, and efficient all-rail service. Norfolk Southern partnered with CN Railway to expand domestic intermodal service between Canada, Kansas City, and Atlanta and with Florida East Coast Railway to expand both Domestic and International intermodal services in Florida.
9. We grew our strategic footprint in key markets. Customers and partners continue to put their trust in us to help power their supply chain. In Georgia, Norfolk Southern was selected as the rail service provider for Georgia Ports Authority’s new $127M inland terminal, the Blue Ridge Connector, that will connect Northeast Georgia to the Port of Savannah and serve a range of industries.
10. We helped our customers find premier rail-served property or property near rail to expand their business and build for the future. This includes Anchor Ingredients, which announced they will build a transload facility for pet food to be served by Norfolk Southern in Indiana, Idaho Forest Group, which started up a new Norfolk Southern-serviced lumbermill in Mississippi this year, and Scout Motors, whose South Carolina EV facility, expected to open in 2026, will be served by Norfolk Southern.

We're proud of what our team has accomplished in 2023, and we’re excited for what 2024 has in store.