Despite headlines signaling a sustainability pullback, the reality is more nuanced: Many companies are quietly doubling down, investing more strategically than ever before. Norfolk Southern Chief Sustainability Officer Josh Raglin has been closely watching how the sustainability shift has been playing out. In this Rail Group On Air podcast, he and Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono discuss what NS is prioritizing in 2026 to build resilience, meet stakeholder demands, and unlock long-term value. He talks about five predictions for 2026:

1. “Sharper Focus on Materiality: Companies will concentrate resources on areas where they can make the greatest impact—such as plastics, water, and clean air—guided by materiality assessments and stakeholder priorities.”

2. “Sustainability as a Business Driver: Sustainability is no longer just a moral imperative; it’s an economic one. Organizations will increasingly showcase measurable financial benefits—fuel savings, scrap recycling, and nature-based solutions—to justify investments and strengthen board-level support.

3. “From Ambition to Action: Firms that set science-based targets and net-zero goals will move aggressively into implementation. Expect operational shifts like transitioning freight to rail for carbon savings—even when costs rise—because corporate mandates prioritize emissions reduction.”

4. “Pragmatic Net-Zero Strategies: Updated standards will embrace carbon insets and offsets, signaling a more realistic approach to achieving net-zero. This will accelerate investment in forest carbon credits and value-chain carbon insetting.”

5. “Growing Need for Collaborative Action Meeting sustainability goals increasingly requires deep collaboration with vendors and customers to align strategies, share data, and improve efficiencies across the supply chain. Organizations that fail to engage partners in joint environmental initiatives risk falling short of expectations—and losing competitive advantage.”

Rob Russell, Managing Partner, Russell-Kroese Partners, joins Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono for a wide-ranging discussion on the railroad industry and its future, with particular emphasis on the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger. Among the topics are the health of the rail industry from 2002 to present; the service and rate environment, the outlook for intermodal business; challenges with connecting to a railroad for carload customers; when railroads say “we’re looking to grow,” what does “growth” really mean?; challenges for commercial professionals in the rail space; rail in the West vs. rail in the East; and “benefits” and “lookouts” for UP’s acquisition of NS.

Rob Russell is a seasoned transportation executive who operates fluidly from the boardroom to the shop floor. A certified six sigma black belt and a LEAN champion, Rob is a proven business leader who has a track record of strategy development, financial planning, business develop-ment, operations, and performance management to accomplish an organization's desired goals. Pulling from more than 23 years of executive logistics experience across CWR Solutions, OmniTRAX, Progressive Rail and Union Pacific, he brings passion, expertise and dedication to his clients. In addition to being a successful entrepreneur, Rob is recognized to excel within complex, high pressure organizations to achieve measurable and timely results by cultivating relationships, developing high performing teams, and delivering on time.

As Norfolk Southern Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, John Orr holds ultimate responsibility for every train on the Class I’s vast network, freight and passenger. Relationships between passenger carriers and their host freight railroads aren’t always harmonious, but NS has been working on improvements benefiting both.

“For several months now, we've been a top performer among Class I’s when it comes to host-responsible delay metrics—no small feat considering how much passenger service we host on our network,” Orr tells Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. “A more fluid network benefits everyone who touches our system, from customers to passenger services like Amtrak to communities throughout our system that experience fewer slow or stopped trains. There is a direct line between all our operational improvements and improvements in passenger rail hosting performance. And during the past two years we’ve forged effective partnerships with local and state passenger groups, from Pennsylvania to Virginia to North Carolina.”

Orr discusses why “a reliable, consistent team is necessary for reliable, consistent service,” initiatives for “building skills and capabilities of our railroaders” and “training generational railroaders.” He describes a “root cause analysis mentality” and the “war rooms” Operations has been utilizing. “Safety is the core of everything,” he stresses. “A safe railroad is an efficient railroad.”

This podcast, taken from Railway Age’s 2025 Rail Insights Conference, features Kate Suprenuk, President of Leasing and Manufacturing, Union Tank Car Company & Procor | Marmon, in conversation with David Nahass, President, Railroad Financial Corp. and Financial Editor, Railway Age. Conference sponsored by BNSF Railway, The Greenbrier Companies, Amsted Rail, Loram, Trinity Rail and Union Pacific.

Without volume and market share growth, the Class I’s may be at risk—or be forced to look at merging. Investors continue to await the next leg of Class I railroad earnings growth. While margin gains from current levels are expected, PSR (Precision Scheduled Railroading) is no longer the investor story it once was, and the railroads must prove they can grow to maintain their premium multiples. In this wide-ranging conversation with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono, Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl, Managing Director at TD Cowen, explores the factors that can drive railroad market share growth, including high-quality, consistently reliable service; ease of doing business; industrial development projects; regulatory relief allowing technological advancement; and potential mergers producing a U.S. transcontinental network. While the track record for industry volume growth has been questionable, Seidl views the growth levers “as largely in railroad control.”

Drawn from our 2025 Rail Insights conference, this edition of Railway Age’s podcast series features Surface Transportation Board Chair Patrick Fuchs in conversation with Editor-in Chief William C. Vantuono. Now in his second five-year term expiring Jan. 14, 2029, Fuchs was first Senate-confirmed in 2019. Fuchs earned second-term support from dozens of rail shipper groups who citied his expertise and offered depictions as “calm,” “transparent” and “seriously thoughtful.” Railroads, which rarely take positions on pending nominations, acknowledged support. In his six years at the STB, Fuchs’ “just the facts” approach has had him siding with railroads and shippers. As examples, his railroad-favorable dissent rejecting an STB-initiated Final Offer Rate Review was cited by an appellate court, while he issued a partial dissent to side with shippers in a recent high-value tank car case. Sponsored by BNSF Railway, The Greenbrier Companies, Amsted Rail, Loram, Trinity Rail and Union Pacific.

Railway Age’s 2025 Railroader of the Year is CSX President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Hinrichs, who joined the railroad industry in September 2022 and in a little more than two years has made immediate and long-term positive impacts. His collaborative approach to labor relations—for example, CSX being the first Class I to offer paid sick leave and forge preliminary agreements with its unions prior to the start of national bargaining—has gone a long way toward transforming the dynamic between management and rail labor from adversarial distrust to engaged problem-solving.

Hinrichs firmly believes that for CSX to fully realize its growth potential, labor and management must function as one team, with mutual respect and trust. He knows that change is difficult, but he also knows it’s necessary. And as a long-time railroad customer in his prior role as President of Ford Motor Company, he knows the importance of providing good service. CSX’s overall excellent performance is a testament to that. Joe Hinrichs—only the third CSX executive to be named Railroader of the Year (he was preceded by Michael Ward in 2009 and Hays Watkins in 1984)—will be presented with the award at the traditional dinner hosted by the Western Railway Club at the Union League Club of Chicago on March 11, 2025. He sat down with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono at CSX’s Jacksonville, Fla., headquarters for this interview.

In 2021, the U.S. Congress directed the Secretary of Transportation to enter into an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine – Transportation Research Board (TRB) “to conduct a study on the operation of freight trains that are longer than 7,500 feet.” Railway Age reported on the 105-page study, “Long Freight Trains: Ensuring Safe Operations, Mitigating Adverse Impacts – TRB Special Report 353.”

Sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration, the TRB convened a 12-member committee “with experience in freight and passenger railroad operations, state rail transportation, national rail safety oversight, and freight and passenger rail research” that met 16 times (six in person) to examine impacts of long trains and invited presentations from individuals and organizations. Meetings focused on railroad technology and highway-rail grade crossings. This Rail Group On Air podcast features six of those members and TRB Senior Program Officer and Study Director, Consensus and Advisory Studies David O. Willauer, who coordinated their participation:

• Debra L. Miller (Chair), Former Secretary, Kansas Department of Transportation and former Surface Transportation Board Vice Chair.

• Gary F. Knudsen, Locomotive Engineer, BNSF Railway (retired).

• Allan Rutter, Freight Analysis Program Manager, Texas A&M Transportation Institute and former Federal Railroad Administrator.

• Dr. John M. Samuels (National Academy of Engineering), President, Revenue Variable Engineering and retired Senior Vice President Operations Planning and Budget, Norfolk Southern.

• Peter F. Swan, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, Emeritus, The Pennsylvania State University.

• Paul E. Vilter, Assistant Vice President Planning, Commercial Services, and Sustainability, Amtrak (retired).

The Indiana Rail Road (INRD) named Joe Gioe President and CEO in mid-August 2024. A career railroader with 20 years of industry experience, he has held leadership positions at two Class I railroads, with most of his tenure at BNSF, where he was twice named Employee of the Year for intermodal train execution and delivery of major infrastructure projects in Transportation and Service Design. He also served as Assistant Vice President Network Optimization and Vice President Transportation at Norfolk Southern. A third-generation railroader whose family roots go back to the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Conrail, Gioe began his career as a conductor, locomotive engineer and front-line supervisor in 2005 and rose through management roles of increasing responsibility. Gioe joins Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono in a wide-ranging discussion on customer service, efficiency, safety, traffic growth and employee development at INRD.

Speaking with IRJ Editor-in-Chief Kevin Smith on this episode is Martin Howell, Transport Markets Director for the UK and Ireland at Worldline, a payment service provider, which also operates a number of operational systems for the railway in Britain. The discussion focuses on possible changes to ticketing in Britain and what Worldline is hoping to see from the new Labour government as it sets about reforming the country’s railway sector. Sponsored by Worldline. (Introductory music: “Tired Traveler on the Way to Home” by Andrew Codeman – CC BY 3.0)