{"id":22037,"date":"2011-01-28T18:05:01","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T18:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utu.org\/?p=873"},"modified":"2011-01-28T18:05:01","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T18:05:01","slug":"railroads-2010-how-sweet-it-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smart-union.org\/railroads-2010-how-sweet-it-was\/","title":{"rendered":"Railroads 2010: How sweet it was","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
How did major railroads perform in 2010?<\/p>\n
Reviewing their calendar-year and fourth-quarter profit statements, one wouldn’t know they were operating in the midst of a nationwide recession.<\/p>\n
Profits soared, stock dividends were raised and operating ratios improved. (Operating ratio — a railroad’s operating expenses expressed as a percentage of operating revenue — is considered by economists to be the basic measure of carrier profitability.)<\/p>\n
Wall Street analyst Ed Wolfe reports\u00a0the level of freight car and intermodal loadings for the year registered “the best” year-over-year growth in more than 50 years.<\/p>\n
Wolfe and other analysts also point to the railroads’ pricing strength — the ability to raise rates on shippers with limited effective alternatives to railroad transportation. Many long-term contracts for hauling coal are expiring, and substantial rate increases on that traffic already are\u00a0reflected in new contracts.<\/p>\n
Indeed, railroad CEOs are predicting another strongly profitable year in 2011, which was reflected in year-end railroad stock prices, which were flirting with record highs.<\/p>\n
Following are profit reports from the major railroads:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>Canadian National:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Canadian Pacific:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>CSX:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Kansas City Southern:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Norfolk Southern:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Union Pacific:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0BNSF:<\/strong><\/p>\n As BNSF is now privately held, it no longer reports detailed financial data.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How did major railroads perform in 2010? Reviewing their calendar-year and fourth-quarter profit statements, one wouldn’t know they were operating in the midst of a nationwide recession. Profits soared, stock dividends were raised and operating ratios improved. (Operating ratio — a railroad’s operating expenses expressed as a percentage of operating revenue — is considered by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,45,9,18],"tags":[87,784,785,786,88,787,180,89,181,92,566,183,788,185,93],"member_types":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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