Industry-leading safety gains highlight Norfolk Southern’s latest quarter

Reliability rises with sharp drop in unscheduled stops

By Chad Previch, Senior Communications Manager

Today, Norfolk Southern reported its fourth quarter earnings and full year 2025 results, which showed clear progress on the fundamentals that matter most: industry leading safety gains, dependable service and rigorous cost discipline. With an uncertain macro environment, Team NS controlled the controllables.

Safety sets industry standard: NS delivered zero mainline derailments in the fourth quarter to lead the industry. Investments in our unique inspection technology, including digital twin technology and our Automated Track Geometry Measurement System, which uses locomotives to continuously scan and evaluate track conditions in real time, as well as investments in our people are paying off. Based on preliminary data, 2025 stands as our best year in more than a decade on an accident rate basis. That progress comes from rigorous standards, better tools and a culture that treats safety as a value, not a statistic.

• Our digital train inspection (DTI) portals recently hit a milestone. Over 75% of our traffic is scanned by DTI portals each month, extending the reach of our safety systems while trains are in motion.
• Our new wheel integrity system, deployed in late 2025, identified a critical external vendor casting flaw, helping trigger a broader industry recall and preventing potential incidents before they happened.
• Strengthening safety readiness through free training with local first responders. This work equips responders with the knowledge and skills needed to respond to rail-related emergencies through hands-on instruction.

Service: consistent, reliable, customer focused: War-room discipline and cross-functional problem-solving protected service even as we adapted to weather impacts, driving down unscheduled stops by 31%, aiding networking reliability and fluidity.

Record fuel efficiency helps drive productivity gains: NS delivered the best fuel efficiency for any of its previous fourth quarters, improving 4% from a year ago. Those gains helped NS increase its three-year productivity target (2024-2026) by another $50 million this quarter, bringing the cumulative goal to $650 million by managing the system with precision and innovation.

Other quarterly highlights include:

• Playing a pivotal role in supporting energy providers and manufacturers as they build the power systems needed for an AI-driven economy. In 2025, transformer shipments were up 30% year-over-year, signaling fast-growing demand for heavy, long-haul freight, which NS is uniquely positioned to move safely, efficiently and sustainably.
• Helping secure investments for state and local customers, including in Alabama where an NS-served site will soon be home to Eli Lilly’s new $6 billion advanced manufacturing campus. The landmark investment is a major win for the state’s bioscience sector and the region’s economy. Similarly, another major announcement happened in South Carolina, where a Norfolk Southern-served REDI Site will now be the home to a new $120 million manufacturing facility.
• Powering past the 1,000th DC-to-AC locomotive conversion, reflecting decades of employee expertise and Norfolk Southern’s commitment to reliability and sustainable shipping.

For more details, see the company’s quarterly earnings press release. You can also read some yearly highlights here.

Chad Previch leads external communications for Norfolk Southern in the areas of Sustainability, Community Impact and Technology. He also manages messaging related to the company’s Government Relations and Investor Relations priorities. He joined NS in 2025, bringing nearly 20 years of PR and corporate communications experience.