CSX Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Abby and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the CSX Corporation first quarter 2026 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. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one a second time. Thank you. And I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Korn, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. You may begin.

Thank you, Abby. Good afternoon, everyone. We're very pleased to have you join our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me from the CSX leadership team are Steve Angel, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Corey, EVP and Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Boone, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, and Mary Claire Kenney, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. In the presentation that accompanies this call, which is available on our website, you will find slides with our forward-looking and our non-GAAP disclosures. We encourage you to review them. With that said, I'm very happy to turn the call over to Mr. Steve Angel.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining our call. I'm pleased with the strong start to the year that our railroaders have delivered. We made great strides in safety and managed through weather challenges. And we advanced our efforts to improve efficiency and streamline our cost structure. The progress we've made can be seen clearly in our quarterly results. Volume and revenue grew year over year, while operating expense moved substantially lower, which led to significant margin expansion and EPS growth. Solid earnings and continued capital discipline helped drive higher free cash flow. All together, this represents an encouraging first step toward our goal of best in class performance. At the same time, we recognize that we're still early in this process and market conditions remain uncertain. As Mary Claire will discuss, conflict in the Middle East and rising energy prices are creating opportunities for some of our customers But this has also added to broader concerns about inflationary pressure and potential effects on consumer sentiment. What remains constant is our focus on execution. Our team is responding to customer needs by expanding our service offerings, improving transit times, and converting freight from truck to rail. We're also moving forward on a wide range of cost initiatives as we push to develop the productivity muscle required to sustain performance over the long term. I'll now pass along to Mike Corey to cover our safety and operational highlights.