CSX Corporation

Good afternoon. My name is Krista and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the CSX Corporation fourth quarter earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during that time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star 1. We ask that you limit yourself to one question and then re-queue. Thank you. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Matt Korn, Head of Investor Relations. Matt, you may begin.

Thank you, Krista. Hello, everyone. Good afternoon and welcome to our fourth quarter earnings call. Joining me this afternoon are Joe Henricks, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Corey, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Boone, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, and Sean Pelkey, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Now, in the presentation accompanying this call, you will find our forward-looking disclosure on slide two, followed by our non-GAAP disclosures on slide three. And with that, it is now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Joe Henricks.

All right, thank you, Matthew. And hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our conference call today. As you will hear from our leadership team today, we are very happy with the momentum we carried in the start of the new year. Of course, Mother Nature gave us a few challenges over the last couple of weeks, but we are proud of the work our OneCSX team has done to set us up for success this year. Our railroad is performing well, and Mike Corrigan and the operations team are already bringing new ideas that are helping us run even better, safer, and more efficiently. Our customers are happy with the consistent service that our dedicated employees are delivering. And Kevin Boone will discuss how this is translating into profitable business opportunities. Sean Pelkey will go over our financial position, which remains very strong as we continue to deliver healthy volumes, favorable pricing, strong operating margins, and high levels of free cash flow. Before we talk about the details of the past quarter and our expectations for 2024, it is important to take a step back to appreciate all that our 1CSX team accomplished in 2023. Everyone on this call knows it's been a very active period for our entire industry. Recall that it was just over a year ago that Congress took action to prevent a major rail strike. Soon afterwards, highly visible events last winter led to important public debates about railroad safety. And through the year, Class 1 railroads have completed major mergers and made significant leadership changes. Meanwhile, our customers have had to manage through higher interest rates and inflation on the one hand, and wars and supply chain disruptions on the other. Through all of this, the aim of our 1CS team has been to keep moving forward on our key goal of delivering sustainable, profitable growth that benefits all our key stakeholders. our customers, our employees, our shareholders, and the communities we live in and serve. For example, CSX was the first Class 1 railroad to reach paid sick leave agreements with our union partners, and we were the first railroad to significantly change our attendance policies based on employee feedback. We were also the first U.S. Class 1 railroad to be released from the additional service metric reporting by the STB back in May based on our improvements in service to our customers. Now, here on slide five, we have listed several key achievements from this past year that helped us take important steps forward. First and foremost, our focus on safety has driven strong results over the year, especially in the fourth quarter, enabling us to report much improved accident and injury rates compared to 2022. our service metrics that have consistently led the industry, and today, CSX remains ahead of our peers. Importantly, this is improving our customers' experience, which puts us in a great position to gain their trust and gain share. You've heard me reiterate this all year long. Our team delivered positive volume growth in merchandise that beat U.S. industrial production. Improved efficiency helped us grow coal volumes, and our intermodal business gained traction, led by our service and market initiatives. Our commercial and operating teams are more closely aligned than ever. Our customers know that when we offer them a solution, we have the commitment and the expertise to deliver it. Finally, we have seen our efforts to renew the culture here at the railroad start to really take shape. Through our site visits, family days, and our regular surveys in town halls, we see the increased pride and energy that our employees are feeling through OneCSX. And this is great progress, and we are proud of what we've accomplished this past year. None of these efforts are done or complete as this is a journey. There's so much more that we can accomplish as we work together as one CSX team. On slide six, we highlight some of the key results from our fourth quarter. Total volume grew by 1%, reaching 1.56 million units in the quarter. Much of this growth was driven by our strong merchandise franchise, which gained 3% year over year. Our total revenue decreased by roughly 1%, 3.68 billion, as the effects of higher volumes and favorable pricing were offset by a decrease in other revenue and lower fuel surcharge due to lower diesel prices as compared to last year. We earned 45 cents per share compared to 49 cents per share a year ago. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Mike Corey to go over the details of our operations.