CSX
CSX on April 21 reported teaming with Twin Lakes Academy Middle School in Jacksonville, Fla., to host CSX Innovation Day (watch video above). Focused on showcasing how Fortune 500 companies like CSX use technology, the annual event allowed students to participate in coding sessions, experience drone flybys, and meet CSX’s robotic dog.
“By connecting students to the innovative ways CSX moves supply chains and embraces technology, the event educated and inspired a new generation to think big and push boundaries,” CSX said.
“As kids today grow up surrounded by technology, it’s second nature to them,” CSX Vice President of Technology and Chief Information Security Officer Gary Eppinger noted. “They don’t think about a traditional 197-year-old company and how we’re using technology each and every day to deliver products across the United States. This event helps them connect the dots and see technology in a whole new way.”
Dave Rich, CSX Vice president of IT Strategy, Architecture, and Governance, emphasized the importance of teamwork behind the scenes. “ONE CSX isn’t just a phrase,” he said. “It’s a commitment that our teams truly believe in, live in, and carry out every single day, and events like this highlight how we come together to inspire and engage with our communities.”
Twin Lakes Academy Principal Aurelia Williams summed up: “I cannot find one word to express the gratitude and the depth of my appreciation for this relationship with CSX.”
Separately, CSX recently completed what it called a “significant upgrade” to Cumberland Yard in Maryland, doubling the terminal’s switching capacity. Additionally, weather-related disruptions—winter storms and flooding—and major infrastructure rebuild projects combined to create a difficult first-quarter 2025 for CSX, Railway Age Editor-in-Chief reported earlier this month.
CSX / NS / UP / The Greenbrier Companies
CSX, NS, UP and The Greenbrier Companies are among the 500 U.S.-based companies named to USA Today’s America’s Climate Leaders 2025 list. USA Today partnered with Statista, a global marketing and consumer data company, to create the third-annual list.
“The first list, developed in 2023, began with 2,000 U.S.-based companies that fit the overall criteria of having more than $50 million in revenue and reporting their carbon emissions independently,” USA Today reported on April 21. “Those were narrowed to 400 that cut their emissions intensity [carbon emissions divided by revenue] from 2019 to 2021. It is based partly on CDP data together with information gathered by Statista. For 2024, the list was expanded to 450 companies and looked at their emissions between 2020 and 2022. For 2025, the list was expanded to 500 companies and investigates emissions between 2021 and 2023. The ranking uses these and other indicators to gain a picture of how good a job companies have done at lowering their carbon emissions.”
To make the list, USA Today said, “companies must have reduced their carbon intensity by 3% year-to-year.”
CSX, NS, UP and The Greenbrier Companies were part of the list’s nine Transportation and Logistics sector honorees. Others included Uber, Knight-Swift Transportation, J.B. Hunt, and GXO. There were 16 total business sectors represented on the USA Today list. Among the others: Automotive & Components, Consumer Goods, Health Care & Life Sciences, Real Estate & Housing, and Software & Telecommunications.
NS on April 21 reported that its improvements in locomotive fuel efficiency and investments in low-carbon biofuels and renewable energy helped it land on the list. “We’re proud to offer sustainable solutions that benefit our customers and our communities,” NS Chief Sustainability Officer Josh Raglin said. “With continued investment in our railroaders, technology, and low-carbon energy, we will continue to reduce emissions.”
In related news, NS, in collaboration with 123Carbon, recently introduced the RailGreen program to help its customers reduce emissions from their freight rail shipments.
NS
NS’s “next chapter with Scout Motors Inc. is on track,” according to the Class I. In a recent social media post, NS reported that crews have installed the main line switch that will connect directly to Scout Motors’ future electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing plant in Blythewood, S.C.
“From our predecessor railroads hauling the original Scouts in the ’60s to now supporting the next generation of electric off-road vehicles, NS is proud to be part of Scout’s journey once again,” the railroad reported. “Huge shoutout to our Engineering and Transportation teams for laying the groundwork—literally—for what’s ahead!”
Separately, NS on April 23 released its first-quarter 2025 financial report.
CPKC
CPKC on Earth Day, April 22, reported that its Hypermiler program “recognizes locomotive engineers who use their railroading expertise to maximize fuel savings by using terrain knowledge, communication and train handling to reduce excess fuel burn” (watch video above).
Darryl Perry, a CPKC locomotive engineer in Sparwood, B.C., Canada, is one of the 200-plus “CPKC Hypermilers” who the railroad said “use their ‘feel’ for a locomotive and in-depth local knowledge, coupled with fuel-efficient strategies, to operate trains safely while reducing excess fuel burn.” According to Perry, “the feel comes from years of operating locomotives to know when to accelerate and brake.”
This initiative has already improved fuel use by 2%, CPKC reported.
Separately, CPKC, recently designated as a General Motors 2025 Supplier of the Year, has honored Track Maintenance Foreman Brett Reynolds as its 2025 Railroader of the Year. Additionally its Vivian, La.-based Superior Tie and Timber (ST&T) subsidiary recently marked a safety milestone.
