(The following article by April Taylor was posted on the Hampton Roads Daily Press website on July 29.)
NORFOLK — Norfolk Southern’s operating revenues reached $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2004, an increase of 11 percent over the same period last year and the highest of any quarter in the company’s history.
Railway operating revenues for the first half of 2004 increased 9.4 percent over a year ago, from $3.2 billion to $3.5 billion, based on quarterly earnings data released Wednesday.
Officials credit a number of factors, including increased demand for merchandise such as coal and steel, and record rises in revenues from “intermodal” traffic.
Intermodal traffic carries standardized shipping containers among ships, trains and trucks.
Intermodal revenues climbed 21 percent, to a record $364 million, in the second quarter.
“We are having our best market results since the year 2000,” said L.I. Prillaman, vice chairman and chief marketing officer for Norfolk Southern.
“Our markets have all performed beyond expectations.”
The manufacturing segment of the nation’s economy has been expanding for more than a year, Prillaman said.
“Accordingly, the freight market is booming,” he said.
Norfolk Southern is the nation’s fourth-largest railroad and employs 28,000 people nationwide, including about 900 in Hampton Roads.
The railroad company is the first official corporate sponsor of Jamestown 2007, a commemoration to mark the 400th anniversary of the English founding of Jamestown in 1607.
The company announced last week that it would commit $3 million to the ambitious event.