Norfolk Southern Highlights its Balanced Strategy and Clear Pathway to Delivering Sustainable Shareholder Value

Staff Report From Georgia CEO

Thursday, March 21st, 2024

Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) announced Wednesday that it has filed its definitive proxy materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Norfolk Southern also announced its 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders will be held on May 9, 2024. Shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 4, 2024 are entitled to vote at the meeting. In conjunction with the filing of the definitive proxy statement, Norfolk Southern issued a letter to shareholders. The letter highlights information critical to shareholders' decision making, including:

CEO Alan Shaw is a crisis-tested leader who is delivering change. Following his appointment in 2022, Shaw took decisive action and began implementing a balanced strategy to deliver safe and reliable service, continuous productivity improvements, and growth.
  • Following the East Palestine incident, the board and management took urgent and necessary steps to protect both the franchise and shareholders. Norfolk Southern accelerated its investments in safety and made fundamental changes to operating processes to help achieve the company's goal of becoming the gold standard of safety in the industry.

  • Norfolk Southern is now on a clear and achievable path to close the gap with its peers. The company is on track to deliver top-tier earnings and revenue growth, with industry competitive margins – including ~400 basis points of operating ratio improvement during the second half of 2024.

  • Norfolk Southern has brought on John Orr as COO to accelerate the execution of its strategy. John Orr is a Precision Scheduled Railroading expert and comes to Norfolk Southern following a long and successful career at multiple railroads including Canadian National and CPKC.

  • Norfolk Southern's board is committed to ensuring management accountability and responsiveness. The board is meaningfully refreshed, and highly skilled in areas related to effective, independent oversight of the company's strategy and management.

  • Ancora's strategy would add significant risk, impede progress, and destroy long-term value. Ancora is attempting to recycle a slash-and-burn playbook without understanding the current regulatory, labor, and competitive environments.