(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Josh Funk on January 27.)
OMAHA, Neb. — Bragging rights for what constitutes the nation’s largest railroad have still not been settled as Fort Worth-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. continues to battle with Omaha-based Union Pacific Corp. for the crown.
Union Pacific’s 64 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit may have pleased investors, but it didn’t definitively settle the question.
Earlier this week, Burlington Northern, which operates BNSF Railway, renewed the argument over which company is rail king when its earnings report revealed that it was the nation’s largest railroad by freight revenue in the third quarter of 2006.
Union Pacific held the edge in fourth-quarter freight revenue with $3.78 billion, compared with Burlington Northern’s $3.77 billion. Burlington Northern’s claim also doesn’t consider total revenue, where Union Pacific also held the edge, $3.96 billion to $3.88 billion, in the fourth quarter.
The rest of the U.S. railroad universe includes CSX Corp., No. 3 with $2.4 billion in revenue, No. 4 Norfolk Southern Corp., at $2.32 billion, and Canadian National Railway Co., which had $1.64 billion in revenue.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. won’t report earnings until Tuesday.
But Union Pacific spokeswoman Kathryn Blackwell said those revenue figures shouldn’t matter.
She said the Omaha-based railroad bases its claim to be the nation’s largest on the 32,400 miles of track it operates. Burlington Northern remains close by that measure, too, with about 32,000 miles of track.
The dispute may ultimately matter more to railroad buffs than corporate executives.
“At the end of the day, it’s not important to me,” said Jim Young, Union Pacific’s president and chief executive. “What’s most important is looking at your service, your profitability, where you’re going with the direction of the company.”
Burlington Northern spokesman Pat Hiatte said his company is more concerned about improving its own performance than comparing itself with competitors.