Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the CSX Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I will now turn the meeting over to Chair of the Board, John J. Zillmer.
Good morning, welcome to the CSX Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm John J. Zillmer, Chair of the CSX Board of Directors. I hereby call this meeting to order. I will serve as Chair of today's meeting. Michael Burns, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary, will act as the meeting secretary. CSX began holding its annual meetings virtually in 2019. The Board believes that a virtual meeting platform facilitates expanded access and participation by providing shareholders and employees with an opportunity to participate in our annual meeting from any location around the world.
Before we move on to the business portion of the meeting, I would like to take a moment to thank all CSX railroaders for their perseverance and collaboration in a year that saw severe weather disruptions and the concurrent execution of two major infrastructure projects which constrained our network. Together, our railroaders worked to deliver these projects, recover service performance, and improve safety, allowing the company to continue delivering essential goods to communities across our network, which serves major population centers in 26 states east of the Mississippi River, the District of Columbia, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. As is our custom, we will conduct the business portion of our meeting first, then a question-and-answer session. During the Q&A session, we will answer questions submitted in advance of the meeting and questions that are received during the meeting as time permits.
You can submit a question now by typing your question in the Ask a Question field on your screen and clicking Submit. You can submit a question at any time during the meeting. As described in the rules of conduct available on the website for this meeting, each shareholder is limited to one question. The polls are currently open for voting, and you may vote now by clicking the Vote Here button on the virtual meeting website. If you have already voted, you do not have to vote again unless you wish to change your prior vote. Before we begin the business of the meeting, it's my pleasure to introduce our director nominees, all of whom are incumbent members of your board of directors. Steve Angel, President and Chief Executive Officer of CSX. Ann Begeman, former Chairman of the Surface Transportation Board.
Thomas Bostick, Chief Executive Officer of Bostick Global Strategies, LLC, a management consulting firm, and retired Lieutenant General of the United States Army. Anne Chow, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Rewired CEO, a business services firm, and retired Chief Executive Officer of AT&T Business. Steven T. Halverson, Chairman of Gilbane, Inc., a real estate and construction firm, and former Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of The Haskell Company, a design, build, and engineering and construction firm. Paul Hilal, Founder and current Chief Executive Officer of Mantle Ridge LP, an investment firm. David M. Moffett, former Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Linda H. Riefler, former Chair of Global Research and Chief Talent Officer at Morgan Stanley. Suzanne M. Vautrinot, President of Kilovolt Consulting Inc., a cybersecurity strategy and technology consulting firm, and retired Major General of the United States Air Force.
James L. Wainscott, former Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of AK Steel Holding Corporation. J. Steven Whisler, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Phelps Dodge Corporation. Again, I'm John J. Zillmer, and I currently serve as President and Chief Executive Officer of Aramark. Additionally, I would like to introduce our executive officers who are with us today. Steve Angel, again, President and Chief Executive Officer. Kevin Boone, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mike Cory, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Steven Fortune, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer. Riz Chand, Chief Human Resources Officer. Michael Burns, again, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary. Maryclare Kenney, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.
The rules of conduct for the meeting have been posted to the virtual meeting website, and we intend to proceed in accordance with them to provide for an orderly meeting. With that, I now ask our secretary to make the appropriate presentations at this time. Michael?
Today's meeting is being held pursuant to a notice included with the CSX proxy statement that was first sent to CSX shareholders on or about March 30th, 2026. Our tabulator, Broadridge Financial Solutions, has previously advised that a majority of the company's total outstanding shares are represented here today. A report of the Inspector of Elections to that effect will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. As a result, we have a quorum and can proceed with the business of the meeting. A list of holders of the company's common stock at the close of business on March 13th, 2026, the record date for this meeting, certified by Broadridge Corporate Issuer Solutions as our transfer agent and registrar, will also be filed with the records of the company. I would now like to turn to the voting procedures.
Polls have been open since shareholders logged into the meeting. Only CSX shareholders as of the close of business on March 13th, 2026, which is the record date for this meeting, are entitled to vote. As we have stated, if you have already submitted a proxy, you do not need to vote again unless you wish to change your vote. If you have not yet submitted a proxy or if you would like to change your vote, you may do so through the virtual meeting website by clicking on the Vote Here button on your screen and following the instructions. Once all items of business have been addressed and shareholders have been provided an opportunity to submit their votes online, the chair will close the polls for voting.
While preliminary results will be provided at the end of the meeting, the final vote totals will not be known until the inspector certifies their tabulation after the meeting. Those final results will be reported by the company in a Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days following the meeting. There are three items listed in the notice for shareholders action at today's meeting. The election of 12 directors to the CSX Board of Directors, the ratification of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026, and the consideration of an advisory non-binding resolution to approve compensation for the company's named executive officers. The first item of business is the election of 12 directors to hold office until the 2027 annual meeting of shareholders and their successors are elected and qualified.
The 12 director nominees named in the company's proxy statement standing for election were introduced earlier, and additional information about each such nominee is contained in your proxy materials. No other nominations were received in accordance with our bylaws. The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm. Based on the recommendation of the audit committee, the board of directors has reappointed Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026 and is requesting shareholder ratification at this meeting. Jonathan Mick, coordinating partner of Ernst & Young, is with us today and available to respond to any questions you may have during the question and answer session following the business of the meeting. The third item of business is an advisory non-binding resolution to approve compensation for the company's named executive officers.
In accordance with the requirements set forth in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, we are providing shareholders with the opportunity to vote on an advisory non-binding resolution to approve the compensation of our named executive officers as described in our proxy. That concludes all items on the agenda for shareholder action at this meeting. The polls have been open and are about to be closed. Any shareholder has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote should click on the Vote Here button on your screen and complete the voting process. As a reminder, shareholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or the Internet do not need to take any further action unless they want to change their vote. We will pause for a moment to allow shareholders a last opportunity to submit their votes.
I would now like to turn the meeting back over to Mr. Zillmer.
Thank you, Michael. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls closed for the 2026 annual meeting of shareholders. This concludes the formal business of today's meeting. In a moment, we will turn to the question and answer portion of the meeting. You can continue to submit a question now by typing your question in the Ask a Question field on your screen and clicking Submit. Before we begin responding to questions, I would like to invite Steve Angel to take a few minutes to discuss our business. Steve?
Thank you, John. Good morning. I want to thank our more than 22,000 employees for the work they put into this railroad every day, our customers for trusting us to move their freight, and our shareholders for the confidence you have placed in this company and in this team. Before I turn to 2025, I want to start with where we are today. The momentum our employees built in the second half of last year has carried into 2026. That showed up in the first quarter results we reported in April. Revenue grew 2% on 3% volume growth, with operating expense falling 6%, resulting in operating income that was up 20%. Earnings per share were up 26%. Our FRA injury rate improved 13%.
Our train accident rate improved by more than 30%, and we delivered record first quarter fuel efficiency. We are still early in the process, and there is a great deal of work ahead of us to make CSX a best-in-class railroad, but I would say this is an encouraging first step. That said, 2025 was a challenging year for CSX. Severe weather, the simultaneous execution of two large-scale infrastructure projects, a soft freight environment, and unplanned customer closures negatively impacted our results last year. Revenue declined 3% on flat volume. Operating margin contracted 400 basis points. Adjusted operating margins contracted 360 basis points. Earnings per diluted and adjusted earnings per diluted share came in at $1.54 and $1.61, respectively. These results fell short of our expectations.
Our employees accomplished a great deal in 2025 that positioned this railroad for what we are now beginning to deliver. They reopened Baltimore's Howard Street Tunnel in 233 consecutive days of around-the-clock work. This more than $450 million expansion of a 130-year-old tunnel clears a century-old bottleneck on the I-95 corridor and enables double-stack intermodal service through Baltimore for the first time. They rebuilt 60 miles of the Blue Ridge Subdivision destroyed by Hurricane Helene's once-in-a-thousand-year flooding. Restoring full service in under a year. The work took 570,000 man-hours, 1 billion cubic yards of rock, and 35,500 linear feet of new track laid through the Nolichucky River Gorge.
I witnessed firsthand the impact we had on the surrounding communities, and it was a source of great pride for all of us at CSX. Combined with the completion of the 75th Street CREATE flyover in Chicago, these projects add capacity and position CSX to benefit as demand strengthens. Service performance also strengthened through the year. Network performance improved steadily as the infrastructure disruptions from early 2025 cleared. Train velocity, terminal dwell, and trip plan performance all improved into the second half of the year. On safety, our FRA Personal Injury Frequency Index improved to 0.94. Our train accident rate improved to 3.08. Both represent year-over-year improvement driven by focused training, stronger field engagement, and disciplined operating practices. Safety is our sacred responsibility. Nothing is more important than every employee returning home safely at the end of each workday.
We are committed to continuous improvement in both measures. Looking forward, let me share the priorities I see for this company in the year ahead. On productivity, we are leveraging AI technology to pursue productivity with renewed vigor. I believe that we need to develop the productivity muscle required to sustain performance over the long term. That means productivity we can count on year in and year out alongside safety, service, and operational excellence. On capital discipline, investing in our infrastructure to ensure safe and reliable service will always take precedence in our capital spending. Beyond that, we will be more disciplined in how we plan and execute our capital programs. We are using predictive analytics to focus and prioritize our spend. Every project will stand on its own.
On the commercial side, CSX added 85 new or expanded rail-served facilities in 2025, with approximately 600 customer-related development projects in various stages of engagement. We expanded our competitive reach through new intermodal and interchange agreements with partner railroads. The pipeline is active, and the work continues. On capital returns, our strong cash flow enabled us to return $2.4 billion to shareholders in 2025 through dividends and share repurchases. We also increased our dividend by 8%, which demonstrates our confidence in future cash flow generation. None of this matters without our people and the culture we build around them. We are working to build high-performing teams, build a high-performance culture, and build a pipeline of talent that will achieve and sustain best-in-class performance.
That means setting clear expectations, measuring performance rigorously, investing in development at every level, and recognizing and rewarding the people who deliver. Our commitment is to give our employees the tools, the training, and the leadership they need to perform at their best. Our objective is to build CSX into the best-performing railroad in North America, measured by the safety of our operations, the reliability of our service, the efficiency of our cost structure, and the returns we generate on the capital our shareholders entrust to us. We are confident in the strategy we have outlined and in the ability of our team to execute it. The momentum we drove in the second half of 2025 has carried into this year. We intend to build on it to become the best-performing railroad in North America. Thank you for your continued support.
I'll now turn the meeting over to Michael for a question-and-answer session. Michael.
Thank you, Steve. We again invite you to submit a question by typing it in the Ask a Question field on your screen and clicking Submit. We will begin with questions submitted in advance of today's meeting and will then respond to questions we receive during the meeting. We will follow the process we described in the Rules of Conduct. In order to respond as efficiently as possible, questions for the Board will be addressed by Mr. Zillmer as Chair of the Board. Questions for specific directors may be answered and posted to our website following the meeting. Please note that we will answer as many questions as time permits, but in order to give all shareholders an opportunity to ask questions, we have limited shareholders to one question.
In accordance with the rules of conduct for the meeting, we ask that you be concise and ensure that your question is relevant to the business of the company or this meeting. Following the meeting, all appropriate questions submitted in accordance with the rules of conduct will be published on the company's website, including any that we are unable to get to during today's meeting. To our first question. The Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore was a large and important project for CSX. Has the tunnel reopened, and what will the benefit be for the railroad?
We're very excited about the opportunity that Howard Street brings to CSX. The tunnel reopened last fall to single-stack traffic, and earlier this month, the first double-stack train went through. This was a final hurdle for the project. Filling the added capacity the project has provided will occur throughout this year and into next. Customers are enthusiastic about the faster service we're able to provide with BNSF Railway from the West Coast through Atlanta and up into the Northeast.
Our next question: What is CSX's current position on the UP-NS merger?
On May 4, we issued a press release and launched a website that outlined our position on the proposed transaction, provided resources for shippers and other stakeholders to help make their voices heard. We reviewed the refiled Union Pacific Norfolk Southern application. They addressed the three primary deficiencies but otherwise made few substantive changes in their application. We don't think they've met the new merger rule standards of being in the public interest and enhancing competition. Currently, we have a balanced U.S. Class I railroad industry with two east, two west, and two Canadian railroads running north, south. This balanced structure has supported routing options and competitive choices for rail shippers. The proposed combination would create a single transcontinental carrier versus four regional carriers, and the resulting imbalance, in our view, would reduce viable options for shippers.
Our next question: Cost control seems to be a primary point of focus for 2026. Is there also a focus on driving volume and taking share from trucks?
We've made great initial progress in adjusting our cost structure to derive greater efficiency, higher productivity, and stronger margin performance. We have a broad set of initiatives to develop the productivity muscle at CSX to maintain this discipline through the economic cycle. That said, we do expect long-term earnings growth will come from a mix of cost, volume, and price. Growing the business is a key priority, and you're seeing our efforts at expanding the reach of our network and finding new ways to connect with our customers. Examples of this include opening the double stack at Howard Street, improving the speed and capacity through the Myrtlewood interchange that connects the southeastern U.S. with Texas and Mexico, expanding commercial agreements with other railroads, and maintaining a leading service product to facilitate truck conversions.
Importantly, as we make the railroad more cost-effective and more efficient, our capacity to handle more volume on our railroad also increases.
Our next question: How are you using AI to lower costs and create new opportunities in the railroad?
AI is becoming integrated across the company. In operations, AI is used to analyze large volumes of data to improve planning, asset utilization, and overall network flow. Predictive models help anticipate issues earlier, supporting more reliable service and fewer disruptions. Machine learning enables predictive condition-based maintenance, which helps prevent incidents, reduce unplanned downtime, and extend asset life. On the commercial side, we're deploying AI-assisted pricing tools that reduce manual effort and accelerate contract negotiations. This enables our marketing team to make smarter decisions faster. It also frees up their capacity to focus on strategic growth and better understanding the company's business as a whole.
Our final question: What is the opportunity for CSX through your industrial development program? Are you benefiting from onshoring trends?
We're confident that the industrial development initiative will continue to, will contribute to volume growth this year and over the long term. Demand for rail-served sites, interest in supply chain resiliency, and growth in rail-enabled industries continue to drive development across our network. We have major automotive, cement, waste, aggregates, et cetera, customers locating their facilities on CSX-served sites. The number of projects placed in service have increased every year. As they ramp up, we accumulate additional volume into our network. Looking into 2027 and into 2028, this initiative is on track to contribute 1% or more to our annual volume growth.
Mr. Chair, that concludes our question and answer session. Appropriate questions that came in online that have not been answered will be posted to the annual meeting page at csx.com. I am now able to share preliminary voting results for today's meeting. Based on the votes received and counted, it appears that all of the nominees for election to the board have been elected. The appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026 has been ratified, and the resolution on the advisory shareholders vote on the compensation of CSX's named executive officers has been approved. There being no further business items to address, I will turn the meeting back over to the chair.
Thank you, Michael. Thank you all for participating today. The CSX 2026 annual meeting of shareholders is now adjourned.
This concludes today's meeting. You may disconnect.