CSX Releases 1st Quarter Financial Results

CSX said on Thursday that is had first quarter 2024 operating income of $1.35 billion, compared to $1.46 billion in the same period of 2023.

Net earnings in the first quarter were $893 million, or 46 cents per diluted share, down from $987 million, or 48 cents per diluted share in 2023.

Total volume of 1.53 million units was 3 percent higher compared with the first quarter of 2023, with intermodal volume up 7 percent, coal volume up 2 percent, and merchandise volume flat.

Revenue totaled $3.68 billion for the quarter, declining 1 percent year-over-year as lower fuel surcharge, a decline in other revenue, weaker trucking revenue and reduced export coal prices offset gains in merchandise pricing and higher intermodal and coal volumes.

Although first quarter operating income declined 8 percent year-over-year, it increased 3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2023.

For the remainder of 2024, the company expects total volume and total revenue growth in the low-to-mid-single-digit range.

CSX executives said in an earnings call that they expect merchandise business to gain momentum through the year as effects from new business gains, truck conversions, and the ramp-up of industrial development projects build on favorable trends.

Intermodal growth is expected to be supported by stable consumer demand and more normalized retail inventories, which are driving improved port activity.

CSX expects to lose $25 million to $30 million in sales a month due to the closure of the Port of Baltimore due to a bridge collapse in March.

CSX Profits Fell in 3rd Quarter

CSX saw its second quarter profits decline due to higher costs and lower traffic volume.

Operating income fell 13 percent to $1.48 billion while revenue dropped 3 percent to $3.7 billion. Earnings per share dropped 9 percent to 49 cents.

The operating ratio for the quarter was 59.9 percent, an increase of 4.5 points.

All percentage figures are in comparison to the second quarter of 2022.

CSX attributed the rise in its operating ratio to increased labor costs, which rose due to inflation and having a higher number of workers.

Traffic volume slipped 3 percent due to a 10 percent falloff in intermodal volume.

Yet coal volume rose 4 percent due to export coal traffic, while merchandise volume rose 3 percent due to increased business in automotive, metals, and minerals traffic.

CSX executives said the decline in intermodal traffic was due to lower imports as retailers work through a glut of inventory. Low trucking rates and higher track capacity contributed to a decline in domestic intermodal volume.

In a statement CSX CEO Joseph Hinrichs sought to put a positive spin on the quarterly financial performance by saying the company “continued to build momentum this quarter as our merchandise and coal businesses continued to demonstrate significant volume gains,”

He acknowledged that intermodal volume declined, but insisted that “our strong service performance distinguishes us in the marketplace and is attracting shippers to our network.”

Hinrichs said CSX expects growth in the second half of the year and over the long term. He also pledged to continue staffing the workforce at its current levels.

“We’re watching the volumes very carefully and making sure that we have the staffing levels to support sustained high levels of customer service,” Hinrichs said. “And we’re having very good conversations with our customers now that we’re sustaining these higher levels of service.”

However, he said if CSX experiences further traffic declines it will respond accordingly.

During the second quarter of 2023, intermodal trip plan compliance was 96 percent, up from 90 percent a year ago, and carload trip compliance was 84 percent, up sharply from 59 percent in 2022.

On-time train originations improved by 16 points to 78 percent, while on-time train arrivals were up 21 points, to 71 percent.

The personal injury rate fell 24 percent and the train accident rate was down by 16 percent compared to the second quarter of 2022.

In looking ahead to the second half of 2023, CSX expects low single-digit revenue ton-mile growth for the full year, driven by merchandise and export coal. Capital spending is expected to be $2.3 billion.

CSX Operating Income Up 8% in 2022

CSX said this week that for 2022, its operating income was $6 billion an increase of 8 percent compared with 2021,

This included $144 million in gains from what management described as “property sales recognized from the 2021 agreement with the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Full-year 2021 operating income included $349 million in gains from this same transaction, CSX said in a news release.

Net earnings for 2022 were $4.17 billion, or $1.95 per share, compared to $3.78 billion, or $1.68 per share, in 2021. Revenue reached $14.9 billion for 2022, increasing 19 percent compared with 2021.

The operating ratio was 59.5 percent while diluted earnings per share were $1.95, an increase of 16 percent from $1.68 for the full year 2021.

During the fourth quarter of 2022, CSX posted operating income of $1.46 billion compared to $1.37 billion in the same period of 2021.

Net earnings were $1.02 billion, or $0.49 per share, compared to $934 million, or $0.42 per share in the same period of 2021.

Other fourth quarter highlights included revenue of $3.73 billion, a 9 percent year-over-year, increase that officials said was driven by “higher fuel surcharge, pricing gains, and an increase in storage and other revenues.”

Severe winter weather in late December modestly reduced volumes and revenue for the quarter.

The diluted earnings per share of $0.49 increased 17 percent from $0.42 for the fourth quarter of 2021.

During an investors call on Wednesday, CSX executives said the strong fourth earnings occurred despite signs of an economic downtown.

CSX management expected to gain traffic volume this year thanks to ongoing service improvements.

CEO Joseph Hinrichs said service metrics continued to show improvement through the fourth quarter after starting a clear upward trend in the early fall.

“As we anticipated, our hiring successes have allowed us to deliver better customer service that will allow us to capture more business with more volume over time,” Hinrichs said.

He noted that this has meant on-time performance has reached pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. For the quarter, intermodal trip plan compliance was 94 percent, while merchandise traffic reached 77 percent, a 20-point improvement compared to the third quarter of 2022.

During the earnings call, CSX management said it was unable to meet shipper demand in 2022 due to service problems related to crew shortages.

CSX executives said merchandise and coal volume continues to grow, which they expect will enable the Jacksonville-based Class 1 railroad to achieve faster business growth than the economy this year.

Hinrichs said CSX is still not meeting the demand that it has to move carload freight.

However, intermodal traffic is expected to decline due to a decline in import activity as retailers work down high inventories they amassed earlier.

CSX management declined to release earnings projections for 2023, citing economic uncertainty. Management also declined to set an operating-ratio goal.

Chief Operating Officer Jamie Boychuk said operations should continue to improve as additional conductors complete training.

CSX is still hiring conductors due to attrition and a low retention rate for new conductors.

“We’re looking at continuing to build our numbers up so we can get to a point where we can cover vacation time and make sure that our employees get time off,” Boychuk said. Consequently, CSX management said it won’t furlough train crews if traffic volume slows.

CSX plans to $2.13 billion on capital projects this year, up from $1.79 billion in 2022.

CSX Earnings, Income up in 2nd Quarter

CSX on Thursday reported higher operating revenue and net income in the second quarter of 2022. This came despite lingering operating personnel shortages that had led the railroad to turn away business.

In a news release, CSX said net income rose to $1.178 billion, or 54 cents per share, compared to $1.173 billion, or 52 cents per share in the second quarter of 2021.

Operating income was up 1 percent to $1.7 billion while revenue rose 28 percent to $3.82 billion.

CSX attributed the increases in nearly all markets to pricing gains, fuel surcharges and the addition of Quality Carriers, a North American provider of bulk liquid chemicals truck transportation.

The operating ratio – the percentage of revenue devoted to expenses – was up to 55.4 percent. In the second quarter of 2021 the operating ratio had been 43.4 percent.

The carrier said the increase reflected the effects of lower real estate gains, the acquisition of Quality Carriers and higher fuel prices.

The carrier said its second quarter 2022 financial results included $18 million of expense related to the acquisition of Pan Am Railways and a $122 million gain (4 cents per share after taxes) from property sales recognized from the 2021 agreement with Virginia.

Second-quarter 2021 results included a $349 million gain (12 cents per share after tax) from the same agreement.

Freight volumes reached 1,594,000, which was nearly the same as the second quarter 2021 volume of 1,59,000.

The carrier said it is still targeting full-year double-digit revenue and operating income growth for the year.

Coal traffic grew 58.2 percent in the second quarter, but CSX management expects that commodity may decline due to market conditions.

Automotive carload growth was 10.4 percent with CSX management anticipating further growth this year due to the alleviation of a semiconductor shortage that has hindered auto manufacturing in recent months.

CSX managers also expect velocity improvements will result in volume growth in intermodal, boxcar and coal traffic over the second half of the year.

Velocity improved in the second quarter with 83 percent of planned work completed on schedule. Intermodal trip plan compliance was 90 percent while carload on-time performance fell 10 points to 59 percent.

Industry analysts said that the key to second half growth lies in how well CSX is able to resolve its worker shortage issues.

Those issues received considerable attention during the second quarter earnings call with CSX executives saying they are looking to increase the number of train and engine workers to 7,000 by the end of September.

But to reach that goal CSX will need to overcome high attribution in the T&E ranks.

“Our ability to hire and retain new workers, which is vital to improving our service and growing the business, remains challenged,” CSX CEO James Foote said during the earnings call.

He said CSX is not alone in having this issue because the labor market is tight and the COVID-19 pandemic “has had a profound effect on employees’ work and lifestyle preferences. Our hiring process has been steady, but slow.”

CSX has 6,667 active T&E workers but Foote indicated that new hires and veteran locomotive engineers and conductors are leaving CSX at significantly higher rates than usual.

The company added 311 conductors during the second quarter but crew availability of late has been lower than usual due to rising COVID-19 infections and workers taking vacations.

The railroad said it has had to respond by making “tough decisions” about what traffic moves and what gets held.

Priority is given to service-sensitive intermodal traffic and in instances where crew availability is tight preference is being given to bulk traffic over merchandise trains because the bulk commodities involve grain or coal being added to large stockpiles.

That was particularly the case in the Southeast where CSX gave priority to grain used as chicken feed. The result was that merchandise freight sustained delays of 24 hours or more.

Foote said CSX is hiring at a faster pace than attrition and he expects to turn the corner on crew availability.

CSX Reports 4th Quarter 2021 Financial Results

CSX said on Thursday that its net earnings in the fourth quarter of 2021 were $934 million, which works out to 42 cents per share.

This was a 22 percent rise over the same quarter in 2020 of $760 million or 33 cents per share.

Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $3.427 billion, up 21 percent from $2.825 billion in fourth-quarter 2020.

Operating income was $1.366 billion, a gain of 12 percent over the $1.215 billion posted in the same period in 2020. The operating ratio was 60.1 percent, a 310 bps increase over the 2020 period’s 57.0 percent.

In a statement, CSX officials said growth occurred across all major lines of business. increases in other revenue, and the inclusion of financial results for the Quality Carriers program.

Leading traffic growth during the quarter were coal, up 39 percent, and intermodal, up 16 percent.

CSX expects continued traffic volume growth this year that’s “driven by economic expansion and supply chain recovery.”

The company expects to spend $2 billion this year on capital projects. That is an increase of $200 million over last year.

Much of the capital will be spent on adding siding capacity to former Louisville & Nashville lines, where CSX has experienced strong traffic growth.

During the quarterly earnings call, CSX CEO James Foote acknowledged that although profits and revenue rose, crew shortages kept CSX from moving even more freight.

A presentation for investors noted that CSX doubled the number of conductor trainees in the fourth quarter and moved 150 trainees into active service.

Jamie Boychuk, CSX’s executive vice president of operations, said the railroad expects to have 350 new conductors on the job by the end of the third month of this year.

The railroad continues to seek to hire additional operating personnel, he said.

The crew shortage issue has been exacerbated by high levels of workers who have had to quarantine after exposure to or contraction of the COVID-19 virus.

Compliance with trip plans in the fourth quarter dipped to 71 percent for carload traffic but intermodal trip plan compliance improved to 88 percent.

On time train departures fell 13 percent to 72 percent and on-time train arrivals slipped to 65 percent.

For more information visit https://www.csx.com/index.cfm/about-us/media/press-releases/csx-corp-announces-fourth-quarter-2021-financial-results/

Further financial information  can be found at the CSX investor’s pages at https://investors.csx.com/overview/default.aspx

CSX Optimistic About Traffic Growth

In taking a closer look at the financial performance of CSX in the first quarter of 2021, it becomes apparent that profits and revenue fell because declines in merchandise and coal traffic overwhelmed intermodal growth.

Nonetheless, during a conference call on Tuesday, company executives expressed optimism that traffic will grow overall this year due to a recovering economy shaking off the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We entered the year projecting volume growth in excess of GDP and still expect to achieve this target,” CEO James Foote said.

“We will continue to attract demand throughout the year, and based on the combination of the strengthening economic outlook and our focus on converting additional volumes off the highway, we now expect to achieve double-digit full year revenue growth.”

Quarterly operating income fell 7 percent to $1.1 billion while revenue declined 1 percent to $2.81 billion. Earnings per share slid 7 percent to 93 cents.

The operating ratio crept up by 2.2 points to 60.9 percent as expenses rose 2 percent.

CSX executives attributed the latter to the effects of employee COVID-19 infections, harsh winter weather, and a fuel surcharge lag.

Overall volume was up 1 percent for the quarter with intermodal traffic growing 10 percent on the strength of an increase in imports at East Coast ports.

Yet merchandise traffic fell 6 percent, largely driven by a 16 percent decline in automotive traffic and an 8 percent decline in chemicals traffic.

A global shortage of computer chips has hamstrung auto production in North American. The chips are placed in new vehicles.

Declines in chemical traffic were prompted by falling crude oil and frac sand shipments.

Coal traffic was down 5 percent, which CSX attributed to fewer exports.

Foote said going forward CSX is focused on improving its train velocity performance, noting that the pandemic and winter weather adversely affected crew availability.

Train velocity was down 11 percent while terminal dwell time was up 30 percent.

On-time performance, based on trip-plan compliance, fell for both intermodal and carload traffic.

Figures released by the company showed 85 percent of intermodal shipments arrived on time, down from 96 percent a year ago.

Merchandise carloads fulfilled their trip plans 67 percent of the time, down from 81 percent a year ago.

CSX operated a record 101 trains per day with distributed power and continued its trend of operating more freight on fewer but longer trains.

During the first quarter train length was up 13 percent and employment down 7 percent due to reduced need for train crews.

CSX Net Earnings Down in 4th Quarter

CSX reported this week that it had fourth quarter 2020 net earnings of $760 million or 99 cents per share, compared with $771 million or 99 cents per share in the same quarter in 2019.

For the last quarter of 2020, net income included a $48 million charge or 5 cents per share after taxes that was related to debt retirement.

Revenue during the quarter decreased 2 percent compared with the previous year to $2.83 billion.

In a news release CSX said intermodal growth was more than offset by lower fuel surcharge revenue and declines in coal traffic.

Expenses fell 7 percent in a year-over-year comparison to $1.61 billion, driven by fuel expenses and efficiency gains.

Operating income rose 5 percent to $1.22 billion from $1.15 billion compared with the fourth quarter of 2019.

CSX reported a fourth quarter operating ratio of 57 percent, which official said was a fourth quarter record.

In the fourth quarter of 2019 the operating ratio, which measures expenses as a percentage of revenue, was 60 percent.

CSX management expects traffic volume in 2021 to outpace gross domestic product growth, with merchandise volume growth exceeding industrial production.

Management expects intermodal volume to grown faster than merchandise and coal traffic to show some improvement over its 2020 levels.

The carrier is expected capital expenditures of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion this year.

CSX Net Earnings Fell 14% in 3rd Quarter

CSX this week said that during the third quarter its net earnings declined 14 percent to $736 million, or 96 cents per share, compared with $856 million, or $1.08 per share, in the third quarter of 2019.

Revenue fell 11 percent to $2.65 billion. CSX officials said intermodal traffic growth was offset by declines in coal and merchandise volumes, as well as lower fuel surcharge revenue. Operating income fell 11 percent to $1.14 billion.

The operating ratio, which measures the percentage of revenue devoted to expenses, was 56.9 percent. A year ago the OR for the same quarter was 56.8 percent.

Expenses fell 11 percent to $1.51 billion, which CSX executives attributed to efficiency gains and volume-related reductions.

In a conference call with stock analysts, CSX CEO James Foote said that during the second quarter of this year the carrier experienced its largest and most rapid sequential volume declines in history.

But during the third quarter Foote said CSX was able to “efficiently absorb the record rebound in volumes, while maintaining high level of service,” particularly in intermodal markets.

“The last six months have truly been surreal,” he said. “Think about that: Volume declines and increases twice as steep as the largest swings we experienced in the Great Recession [of 2008] in the span of just a few months.”

Foote said fourth quarter traffic is up on a year-over-year basis. CSX still expects capital expenditures to be at the low end of a $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion range.

In tandem with announcing its quarterly earnings, CSX also announced that its board of directors had approved a new share repurchase program.

The company has been sitting on $2.9 billion in cash and the board authorized an additional $5 billion share buyback program, making the total share repurchase program worth $6 billion.

CSX executives acknowledged that on-time performance deteriorated in the third quarter when compared to the second quarter of this year and the third quarter of 2019.

But Foote said just a few years ago large volume swings would have gridlocked America’s railroads. 

“If you’d had this kind of traffic surge across the rail network in North America four or five years ago, we would be now talking about gridlock across all the major cities in the country. And we wouldn’t be doing anything,” Foote said.

“And now with the common mindset of how you run a railroad, we’re able to respond, we’re able to pivot, we’re nimble, we can add capacity, we can shrink capacity, we can right-size our business and we can do that much more effectively and much more logically and thoughtfully.” 

Overall, CSX traffic volume was down 3 percent for the quarter, with intermodal growth of 7 percent undercut by a 5 percent decline in merchandise traffic and a 27 percent drop in coal.

Volume has increased 3 percent when measured from March 1, before the onset of the pandemic, to the end of the third quarter.

CSX has longer and fewer trains, using 6 percent fewer crews and an active locomotive fleet that’s 8 percent smaller. Train starts have fallen by 11 percent.

During the third quarter, CSX set a record for the number of trains using distributed motive power, averaging 100 trains per day.

CSX Lost 20% of its Traffic in Second Quarter

CSX posted a decline of 20 percent in traffic volume during the second quarter of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold accompanied by an economic recession.

It was the largest quarterly decline in company history and twice as severe as what it experienced during the Great Recession of 2008.

Operating income fell 37 percent to $828 million while revenue tumbled 26 percent to $2.25 billion. Earnings per share fell 40 percent to 65 cents.

Despite cutting costs by 19 percent, CSX saw its operating ratio rise 5.9 points, to 63.3 percent .

Operating ratio is the percentage of revenue devoted to expenses.

All traffic categories fell with coal volume plunging 44 percent, merchandise traffic off 22 percent and intermodal sinking 11 percent.

There was a bit of good news, though. Traffic has risen about 25 percent since the low point of the pandemic in May.

“Wow. Where do I start in talking about this quarter?” said CSX CEO James Foote during an earnings call.

“This was the most disruptive quarter I have experienced in my career, with both the fastest decline in volumes followed by one of the most rapid increases in volumes in the company’s history,” he said.

Foote expressed pleasure, through, at seeing traffic rebound from its May nadir, which he attributed to a strengthening economy marked by the reopening of North American auto assembly plants and their accompanying finished vehicle traffic.

Although Foote said the trends are encouraging, he said it’s still too early to predict the direction of the economic recovery due to lingering uncertainty over the durability of the economic rebound and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s spread.

CSX said carload trip plan performance was 80.5 percent, a decline from the first quarter of 6.1 points above the second quarter a year ago.

Intermodal trip plan performance was 94 percent, down 2.2 points from the first quarter but up from 89.9 percent a year ago.

Most of the falloff in trip plan compliance came in in June as volume began rebuilding and there were delays in recalling furloughed employees.

CSX dropped road train starts in line with the steep volume declines that began in March. But in April the railroad began moving its tonnage on fewer but longer trains, which cut train starts more deeply than the volume decline.

Train starts came within 7 percent of pre-pandemic levels but road train starts remained 17 percent below March levels.

Jamie Boychuk, executive vice president of operations, indicated that fewer train starts are likely to be permanent.

“We are mixing the auto network with our manifest and in some areas with our intermodal network,” he said. “And reducing those train starts … is going to be a good lasting effect as we move forward.”

The CSX workforce, although regaining numbers was 12 percent lower in the second quarter than it was in the same period in 2019.

The railroad has recalled hundreds of train and engine employees from furlough.

Mark Wallace, executive vice president of sales and marketing, said domestic intermodal volume began snapping back in June as retailers restocked store shelves and e-commerce sales were strong.

With some canceled sailing from Asia and elsewhere being reinstated, the outlook for international intermodal has also improved.

Wallace said the future of carload traffic hinges on the recovery of the industrial economy, which is reviving more slowly. He said coal volumes will continue to be challenged.

CSX Net Earnings, Revenue Down in 4th Quarter 2019

Cost cutting can only take a company so far. That is one takeaway from the CSX announcement this week that its net earnings and revenue declined in the fourth quarter of 2019 due to a 7 percent drop in freight traffic volumes.

Net earnings fell 9 percent to $771 million, or 99 cents per share, from $843 million, or $1.01 per share in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Revenue fell 8 percent to $2.9 billion from $3.1 billion. CSX said in a news release that one bright spot was that fourth-quarter expenses were down 9 percent year over year to $1.73 billion due to efficiency gains and volume-related savings.

Operating income declined 8 percent to $1.15 billion compared to the fourth quarter of 2018.

The Class 1 carrier said the lower volumes were in part driven by loss of coal traffic.

CSX did post a 60 percent operating ratio, a fourth quarter record. The operating ratio is the percentage of revenue that is devoted to expenses.

In the fourth quarter of 2018 the operating ratio had been 60.3 percent.

For 2019 as a whole, CSX generated net earnings of $3.33 billion, or $4.17 per share, versus 3.31 billion, or $3.84 per share, in 2018, an increase of 1 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

It said its full-year 2019 operating ratio of 58.4 percent set a U.S. Class I record, improving from the 2018 record result of 60.3 percent.

For the year, CSX traffic volume was down 4 percent with merchandise traffic flat, coal traffic down 5 percent, and intermodal falling by 8 percent.

CSX said much of the 17 percent decline in coal traffic in the fourth quarter of 2019 was due to fewer shipments of coal used to generate electricity. That market has been hindered by competition from natural gas.

Export coal fell due to reduced international shipments of both thermal and metallurgical coal as global benchmark prices fell.

Also falling was domestic and international intermodal shipments. CSX attributed that 7 percent decline to the closing of some low-density service lanes.

As far as the 3 percent falloff in merchandise traffic, CSX said chemicals were down due to reduced natural gas liquids, fly ash and sand shipments.

Agriculture and food products increased due to gains in ethanol, sweeteners and oil.

Automotive traffic fell due to a reduction in North American production while minerals increased due to higher shipments for highway projects.

Forest products dipped due to fewer pulp board shipments while fertilizer volume gained on short-haul phosphate shipments that offset by declines in long-haul fertilizer shipments.

Metals and equipment were down due to reduced steel, construction and scrap shipments.

In a conference call, CSX CEO James Foote sought to put a positive spin on the report by saying, “our service is the best it’s ever been and getting better.”

Mark Wallace, CSX’s executive vice president of sale and marketing, insisted that the railroad is gaining market share every day from trucks as a result.

Nonetheless, he said CSX does not foresee a contraction in trucking industry capacity that would spark an increase in truck rates that could prompt diversion of highway loads to intermodal.

Wallace also said CSX will hold the line on intermodal rates and refuse to chase volume to cutting price.

He said most of CSX’s domestic intermodal business is under long-term contracts.

In speaking to investors, Foote said traffic was hindered by a strike against General Motors last summer and the closing an oil refinery in Philadelphia following an explosion and fire.

“These are truly great results considering the industrial economy’s second half performance,” Foote said.

CSX management expects freight volume to continue to lag over the next few months due to a lackluster industrial economy.

There is a reduced global demand for thermal and metallurgical coal and low natural gas prices will depress domestic demand for coal.

The railroad’s management team said it expects to post growth numbers in 2020 in intermodal and merchandise traffic, but those will enable the carrier to overcome an expected continued decline in coal traffic.

For the year ahead, CSX is projecting revenue to fall by 2 percent compared to 2019. It has an objective of an operating ratio of 59 percent.

Capital expenses are expected to range between $1.6 billion and $1.7 billion, which would be similar to what has spent in recent years.

Foote said the improvements in service quality have enabled CSX to offer service to shippers that is “truck-like in consistency.”

If CSX is to compete against truckers is must offer a reliable service. He also played up his contention that CSX is less expensive than service and more friendly to the environment due to better fuel efficiency.

Jamie Boychuk, executive vice president of operations, said improvements in velocity have enabled the carrier to tighten some of its train schedules, which might negatively affect on-time performance in the first quarter.

CSX said its train velocity has improved by 12 percent with terminal dwell down 9 percent and car miles per day up 6 percent.

During the fourth quarter, trip plan compliance was 82.6 percent for carload traffic and 95.5 percent for intermodal shipments.

The same figures for the fourth quarter of 2018 were 67.3 percent and 73.4 percent respectively.

CSX said 92 percent of its trains departed on time and 85 percent arrived on time.

Those are improvements of 18 percent and 15 percent respectively from the fourth quarter of 2018.

During the 2019 the personal injury rate for CSX employees fell by 15 percent while the train accident rate improved by 41 percent.

Despite falling traffic volume and revenue, Railway Age described CSX’s fourth quarter results as solid because the earnings per share performance exceeded that projected by Wall Street stock analysts.

“However, weak 2020 guidance and top-line outlook were the larger story, with 2020 revenue to be adversely affected by lower coal volumes and yields,” wrote Cowen and Company Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl.

Seidl said his firm has lowered its 2020 and 2021 earnings per share estimates for CSX.

CSX reported earnings per share of 99 cents for the fourth quarter, which beat the 96 cents per share expected on Wall Street.

Analysts had projected CSX would have operating income of $1.18 billion while the actual figure was $1.15 billion. Revenue at  $2.89 billion was slightly below the projected $2.91 billion.

The diminishing coal market is important, Seidl noted, because it is a high-margin business. CSX management expects to lose $300 million coal revenue this year.

Cowen is projecting that 2020 and 2021 earnings per share estimates for CSX will be $4.10 and $4.50 to account for CSX management’s new outlook. The projections had been $4.40 and $4.75, respectively.