The
The results beat
In recent weeks, several groups of railroad shippers have complained to regulators about rail shipping delays that have forced grain mills, ethanol plants and food producers to idle their plants at times while waiting for trains. Federal regulators plan to hold a hearing on the issues next week.
But the problems predate those complaints. The railroad has been struggling for some time to hire the workers it needs as the economy recovers from the pandemic.
“No matter where you go, there’s a labor shortage,” CSX CEO
Foote said the key to improving service is hiring more workers, and the railroad has been making gradual progress on that this year. And staffing has improved since the omicron wave of the pandemic peaked in January.
At the start of the year, CSX had only about 6,218 daily active employees on average at the height of the omicron wave in January. That jumped to 6,459 in February and has continued growing to hit 6,629 on average in April as more new employees completed their training.
Foote said demand for the railroad's services remains strong but volume was down 2% in the quarter as CSX struggled to handle all the shipments. He expects rail operations to continue improving gradually as more workers come onboard.
The freight railroad's revenue jumped 21% to
Edward Jones analyst
CSX said it now expects revenue and operating income to grow at a double-digit rate this year because demand remains so strong.
Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from
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