(The following article by Lois Caliri was posted on the Roanoke Times website on December 8.)
ROANOKE, Va. — The new president of Norfolk Southern Corp., Charles “Wick” Moorman, said the company is ready to cash in on increased business.
But he provided few details on how that could play out in terms of jobs, property and operations in Roanoke.
Moorman, joking with Kiwanians and Virginia Tech Hokie fans during the club’s Wednesday lunch, said there’s only one Tech. He received his bachelor of science in civil engineering from Georgia Tech in 1975, and his master of business administration from Harvard Business School in 1989.
Moorman was named president of NS this year, replacing longtime leader and Vinton native David Goode, who will retire in January 2006, when he is 65.
Moorman said the Roanoke Valley is a junction of two key intermodal routes. NS has said it is considering the valley as a site for an intermodal yard, but Moorman told The Roanoke Times he did not know of any specific site under consideration.
Intermodal shipping – the shipment of goods by a combination of rail, truck and ship – is the fastest growing business for NS, accounting for 20 percent of revenue this year, up from 9 percent in 1993. Coal is no longer the railroad’s largest commodity. Yet, it generates 23 percent of the revenue, down from 27 percent in 1993.
A recovering economy has boosted intermodal business. The chronic shortage of truck drivers, rising fuel prices and fewer trucks have also helped NS.
“Trucks are our largest intermodal customers,” Moorman said. “We’re trying to position ourselves as a partner with trucking, not as a competitor.”
NS is optimistic about capturing new business, in part because of booming imports and congestion in West Coast ports.
China has become a major exporter to the United States. Wal-Mart, accounting for 9 percent of all U.S. retail sales, imports many of its products from China, Moorman said.
NS wants to move a lot of that cargo to Eastern ports. “We see ourselves in a growth position, one we haven’t seen in a while,” Moorman, 52, said. NS, however, needs to improve its Heartland Corridor between Norfolk and Columbus, Ohio. The company wants to pursue private/public partnerships.
Virginia has no trust fund allocation for rail, according to a recent rail enhancement report that was submitted to Gov. Mark Warner on Dec. 1. The majority of the funds, 78.7 percent, goes to highways; 14.7 percent to transit; 4.2 percent to the Virginia Port Authority; and 2.4 percent to airports. The report also stated its goals. Among them was one to improve freight rail service to the Hampton Roads/Newport News ports.
But a fundamental cultural and policy shift is needed before anything happens, the report said. “Public expectations for dramatic, near-term improvement in rail service should be tempered by the recognition that the rail mode of transportation had not enjoyed the public investment and policy support that has been accorded highways and aviation.”
Moorman said whatever happens in Virginia is just one piece of the broader solution because NS looks at its entire system, which reaches into 22 states and Canada.
If Interstate 81 is widened in Virginia, more lanes will have little impact on NS.
“The more interesting thing to think about is what happens across the border at both ends,” Moorman said after his lunch presentation.
Moorman also told The Roanoke Times that discussion is ongoing with state officials about passenger rail service.
Questions such as what has to be done to improve the roads, what trains have to be added, how much it would cost, and how much money NS would receive as compensation for allowing the passenger trains to move on its tracks are on the table.
As for the future of Roanoke’s East End shops, Moorman said, “We have good facilities, here, but we haven’t been able to structure an agreement.”
He referred to a failed proposal that would have produced more jobs rebuilding locomotives at the East End shops.
Union leaders rejected an offer that, they said, would weaken the unions. Union officials turned down the company’s offer to hire new employees at 75 percent of wages and to negotiate one contract for all the union trades.
Moorman, who was once vice president of personnel and labor relations at NS, said the proposal was “fair” and “fairly straightforward.”
“We’re trying to be creative,” he said.
It’s premature to know if the Roanoke work will be shipped to a shop in Juniata, Pa., he said.
Moorman, who describes himself as an optimist, said Roanoke could get some work.
In 1992 Moorman was vice president of personnel and labor relations at NS.