Question(s) for the NS Annual Meeting

The Norfolk Southern Annual Meeting takes place in Williamsburg, and (as a shareholder) I do my best to attend. If nothing else, it is an interesting use of my time (it's the only publicly-traded company I'm in a position to attend the annual meeting of, with the possible exception of Altria...and tobacco just doesn't interest me)...and it gives me room to ask one or two questions of the CEO on the record.

On the one hand, I go through pains not to be "that guy" at the meeting (purposefully putting the CEO/board on the spot in an embarassing manner), but on the other I do want to put that question to good use this year (considering all of the "fun" back in the fall that many of us experienced with delays), so my first choice question will probably involve some version of "You held up a large number of customers with those delays; what happened and what is being done to prevent a repeat"...which I find is, oddly enough, a rather sound question to ask from a strict business perspective. The other I'm inclined to ask would involve risks to the company from oil trains (and what is being done to ensure that NS doesn't end up with a catastrophic derailment, since something like Lac Megantic could easily make a major hit on the company).

With that said, does anyone have anything else I could ask that's not too far into the railfan weeds?

Sounds to me like you already are "That Guy."

1st question is the one to use.

2nd question your not going to be the only person asking about oil trains.

Since the delay of last fall have been clean up with the MOW project getting done, and the start of winter. Many people have moved on, but what is the long term plan? Fluid railroad today, but its spring time and the MOW forces are back. What has change to prevent another melt down?

That said a third topic is Coal. We are digging out ever ton of coal out of the hills as fast as we can.

What is the long term outlook for the railroad when NS lose the coal movements. How much of the current plant goes to rust. Is there anyway to exit the coal fields, before they become a walking path.

Something like selling track to smaller railroads so NS gets a cash out and is not last one standing when the music stops.

My thinking.

Just-Thinking-51 said:

That said a third topic is Coal. We are digging out ever ton of coal out of the hills as fast as we can.

What is the long term outlook for the railroad when NS lose the coal movements. How much of the current plant goes to rust. Is there anyway to exit the coal fields, before they become a walking path.

Something like selling track to smaller railroads so NS gets a cash out and is not last one standing when the music stops.

My thinking.

Click to expand...

Ironically, a winding down of coal can actually help coal railroads, at least in the short term.

In the UK for example, there has over the last decade or so been a continuous decrease in the number of coal power plants.

There has also been a decrease in the number of mines.

However, railroad ton-miles of coal are up perversely because the closure of mines has not matched the closure of power plants and the coal is thus being shifted over greater distances. The railroad is thus growing a dying market. Of coure it can't go on forever but the last one standing when the music stops may well be rich by then.

The UK consumed 62.1 million Tonnes of Coal in 2012 according to UK Coal. It produced only 16.8 Million Tonnes of it. The rest was imported, including 10.2 Million Tonnes from the US. So not only is the railroad in the UK getting more Tonne-Km of Coal, The UK is also providing opportunity to CSX and NS to run up more Ton-Miles moving said Coal from the US mines to the US east coast ports. In short it affects the OTP of the Cardinal among others. By far the biggest source of Coal consumed in the UK is Russia at 18.3 Million Tonnes, surpassing the entire production of the UK itself.