CEO Mark George on CNBC: A high-performing network, strong momentum, and market growth

On Jan 29., Norfolk Southern President & CEO Mark George joined CNBC’s Closing Bell: Overtime to discuss the company’s strong fourth-quarter results and the state of the economy. George signaled that NS’s high-performing network has created strong momentum and will unlock market growth in 2025.

Here are key takeaways from George’s interview:

High-performing Network Begets Growth

“We’ve got really good productivity momentum right now.”

“Our network is running really, really well right now. So, we’re hungry for growth, we can accommodate it, and the performance on the network is spectacular. Our train speeds are up about 10 percent, and our safety metrics are improving at the same time.”

Supportive Economic Backdrop

“We feel like there’s a supportive economic backdrop for us to grow as well. We took on 5 percent more volume growth in 2024, and we’re seeing runway for at least another few points in 2025.”

“We move the US economy, we move GDP, whether the activity is imported for products or whether they’re produced in the US, we’re going to move it. We’re nimble right now operationally, so we can adjust quickly to where the products are coming from – whether it’s from import or domestic suppliers.”

“We had 149 active industrial development projects happening on our network this year… I think the activity is picking up.”

Capturing Market Share

“We know we’re recapturing share, because of our improving service product. On the merchandise side, we’re finding more and more opportunities to take back some share that we had lost after a couple years of weak service.”

“On intermodal, it’s a combination. We’re taking share off the highway as well as taking on growth that’s in the marketplace.”

To read more about Norfolk Southern’s Q4 earnings, visit Reuters, AP, Wall Street Journal, and Trains.