Full Description

Norfolk Southern Corporation (Norfolk Southern), incorporated on July 23, 1980, controls a freight railroad, Norfolk Southern Railway Company. Norfolk Southern Railway Company is primarily engaged in the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products and finished goods primarily in the southeast, east and Midwest and, via interchange with rail carriers, to and from the rest of the United States. Norfolk Southern also transports overseas freight through several Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. The Company provides logistics services and offers an intermodal network in the eastern half of the United States. Norfolk Southern and CSX Corporation (CSX) jointly own Conrail Inc. (Conrail), whose primary subsidiary is Consolidated Rail Corporation (CRC). The Company’s non-carrier subsidiaries engage principally in the acquisition, leasing and management of coal, oil, gas and minerals; the development of commercial real estate; telecommunications, and the leasing or sale of rail property and equipment.

Railroad Operations

As of December 31, 2008, Norfolk Southern’s railroads operated approximately 21,000 miles of road in 22 eastern states and the District of Columbia. The system’s lines reach many individual industries, electric generating facilities, mines (in western Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southern and northern West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania), distribution centers, transload facilities and other businesses located in smaller communities in its service area. The miles operated include leased lines between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and trackage rights over property owned by North Carolina Railway Company.

Triple Crown Operations

Triple Crown Services Company (Triple Crown), Norfolk Southern’s subsidiary, offers door-to-door intermodal service using RoadRailer equipment and domestic containers. RoadRailer units are enclosed vans that can be pulled over highways in tractor-trailer configuration and over the rails by locomotives. Triple Crown provides intermodal service in major traffic corridors, including those between the Midwest and the northeast, the Midwest and the southeast, and the Midwest and Texas. Coal, coke and iron ore, most of which is bituminous coal, is Norfolk Southern’s railroads' largest commodity group. The railroads handled a total of 194.2 million tons during the year ended December 31, 2008, most of which originated on the Company’s lines in West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Revenues from coal, coke and iron ore accounted for about 29% of the Company’s total railway operating revenues in 2008.

General merchandise traffic includes five commodity groupings: automotive; chemicals; metals and construction; agriculture, consumer products and government, and paper, clay and forest products. The automotive group includes finished vehicles for BMW, Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Honda, Isuzu, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Saab, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota and Volkswagen, and auto parts for Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota. The chemicals group includes sulfur and related chemicals, petroleum products, chlorine and bleaching compounds, plastics, rubber, industrial chemicals, chemical wastes and municipal wastes. The metals and construction group includes steel, aluminum products, machinery, scrap metals, cement, aggregates, bricks and minerals. The agriculture, consumer products and government group includes soybeans, wheat, corn, fertilizer, animal and poultry feed, food oils, flour, beverages, canned goods, sweeteners, consumer products, ethanol and items for the military. The paper, clay and forest products group includes lumber and wood products, pulp board and paper products, wood fibers, wood pulp, scrap paper and clay. In 2008, 135 million tons of general merchandise freight, or approximately 67% of total general merchandise tonnage handled by the Company, originated online. The balance of general merchandise traffic was received from connecting carriers at interterritorial gateways. The principal interchange points for the Company received traffic included Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Detroit, Hagerstown, St. Louis/East St. Louis and Louisville. General merchandise carloads handled in 2008, were 2.6 million, the revenue from which accounted for 52% of the Company’s total railway operating revenues in 2008.

The intermodal market consists of shipments moving in trailers, domestic and international containers, and Roadrailer equipment. These shipments are handled on behalf of intermodal marketing companies, international steamship lines, truckers and other shippers. Intermodal units handled in 2008, were three million, the revenues from which accounted for 19% of the Company’s total railway operating revenues for the year.

Passenger Operations

Regularly scheduled passenger trains are operated by Amtrak on Norfolk Southern’s lines between Alexandria, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana; Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina; Selma and Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois, and Porter, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois, and Battle Creek, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois, and Detroit, Michigan, and Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Commuter trains are operated on the NS line between Manassas and Alexandria in accordance with contracts with two transportation commissions of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Norfolk Southern leases the Chicago to Manhattan, Illinois, line to the Commuter Rail Division of the Regional Transportation Authority of Northeast Illinois. The Company operates freight service over lines with ongoing Amtrak and commuter passenger operations, and is conducting freight operations over trackage owned by Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company and Maryland Department of Transportation. Passenger operations are conducted either by Amtrak or by the commuter agencies over trackage owned by Conrail in the shared assets areas.

The Company competes with CSX system.