October 26, 2023 - TRA Newswire -

Class 1's, including those that operate in Texas and the Southwest are lowering their outlook for the year after volumes continued to slide in the 3rd quarter.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) CEO Keith Creel told investors and analysts earlier this week "No doubt a challenging quarter as we dealt with a softer demand environment and supply-chain impacts from the strike at the Port of Vancouver." U.S. traffic was off as well, despite growth in CPKC's newly created Chicago-Texas-Mexico premium intermodal service.

Union Pacific's third quarter profit fell by 19%, revenue by 10% because of lower volumes. However, CEO Jim Vena reported that velocity of its freight trains increased by 5% as some operational changes kicked into place. A lag between fuel price increases and UP's fuel surchages taking effect also kept the bottom line tapped down. 

Vena has been making changes in the operation since his return to UP this year. He said that by eliminating layers of bureaucracy and pushing decision making down, the railroad can react faster to changing conditions.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe has not yet filed its 3rd quarter financial performance report. However in the 2nd quarter BNSF year-over year quarterly report noted a 12% drop in revenue and a 24% dip in net income.