Norfolk Southern Profit Falls as Derailment Costs Grow
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OMAHA, Neb. — The costs related to the East Palestine derailment continue to grow to reach $966 million for Norfolk Southern, but the railroad’s service is improving and its insurance companies have started to pay their share of the cost of the crash in eastern Ohio early this year.
The Atlanta-based railroad said this year’s third-quarter profit of $478 million, or $2.10 per share, was half of last year’s $958 million, or $4.10 per share. The results were hurt by the derailment costs, a drop in its fuel surcharge revenue and flat volume.
Without the derailment costs, the railroad would have made $601 million, or $2.65 per share.
While the cleanup from the February derailment continues, the railroad collected its first $25 million payment from its insurers. Norfolk Southern expects its insurance companies to eventually cover most of the cost of the derailment that forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes and left residents with worries about possible long-term health effects.
This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)
The analysts surveyed by FactSet Research expected Norfolk Southern to report earnings per share of $2.64, on average.
But the average speed of Norfolk Southern’s trains increased during the quarter to 20.5 mph. That’s higher than last year’s 19.1 mph average and also up from this year’s low point of 18.7 mph in the second quarter when one of its main tracks was still closed because of the derailment for most of the period.
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The average amount of time the railroad’s trains spend inside its railyards also decreased to 23.2 hours from last year’s 25.9 hours and 28.1 hours in this year’s second quarter.
The railroad’s revenue declined 11% to $2.97 billion. That’s just ahead of the $2.94 billion that Wall Street predicted.
Norfolk Southern now expects revenue to be down about 4% this year after fuel surcharge revenue fell $254 million in the third quarter.
Norfolk Southern is one of the nation’s largest railroads operating in the Eastern United States.
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