(The following appeared on the Virginian Pilot website on May 13, 2011.)
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The nation’s policymakers lack the funds and political will to improve the nation’s highway system but have supported public-private partnerships for upgrading freight-rail lines, Norfolk Southern Corp.’s top executive said Thursday.
Norfolk Southern, which used a public-private partnership to upgrade its Heartland Corridor from Norfolk to the Midwest, has been adding rail-and-truck terminals to support a Crescent Corridor between New Orleans and the Northeast, CEO Wick Moorman said during the company’s annual meeting.
The company, he said, has broken ground for a Crescent Corridor terminal in Tennessee and will break ground for another in Alabama next month. Norfolk Southern plans to add other terminals in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, he told shareholders.
Shareholders, meanwhile, approved by a wide margin the compensation that Norfolk Southern paid its top executives last year. Moorman received a combination of salary, stock and option awards and other compensation that totaled $10.96 million last year. That was down from $12.76 million in 2009.
Full story: Virginian Pilot