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Norfolk Southern runs freight trains that carry heavy goods across the eastern United States.
Norfolk Southern is a railroad. It doesn't sell anything to you or me directly. It sells a simple service to businesses: moving heavy stuff from one place to another by train. Trains are slow compared to trucks, but they're incredibly cheap per ton and they can haul enormous amounts at once, so if you're a coal mine, a chemical plant, or a car factory, trains are often the cheapest way to move your goods. Think of it as the freight elevator of the American economy: not flashy, not fast, but if you have a thousand tons of stuff to move, it's the tool you call.
The company makes money by charging customers to haul their goods on its tracks, and it moves several broad types of freight. Roughly a quarter of revenue comes from intermodal, which means shipping containers that travel by train for the long haul and by truck for the short trip at each end. Another big chunk comes from merchandise — things like cars, auto parts, chemicals, and building materials. Coal and other energy products make up a smaller but still important slice. Its tracks run mostly across the eastern United States, which is why it serves customers like power plants, steel mills, and carmakers in that region, and why its biggest rival is CSX, which covers much the same territory.
Norfolk Southern has had a rough few years. In early 2023 a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling hazardous chemicals, and the cleanup and lawsuits that followed cost the company a lot of money and public trust. Since then it has been under pressure from regulators and from an activist investor to run more safely and more efficiently. It also spent years fighting a bid from Canadian Pacific, which ended up buying a different railroad instead. Like most railroads, Norfolk Southern generates steady cash, and it uses that cash to pay dividends, buy back its own shares, and reinvest in tracks and equipment — a fairly boring but reliable business model, which is exactly what a railroad is supposed to be.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026