By Matt Grossman

Norfolk Southern Corp. on Monday said that Cindy Sanborn will become its chief operating officer following the retirement of the current COO, Michael Wheeler, later this year.

Ms. Sanborn will begin the job with the Norfolk, Va.-based freight railroad on Oct. 1. She was most recently a network-planning executive at Union Pacific Corp., and previously rose to become CSX Corp.'s COO to finish a 30-year tenure at that company.

Mr. Wheeler, who joined Norfolk Southern in 1985, became the railroad's COO in 2016.

Write to Matt Grossman at matt.grossman@wsj.com