Norfolk Southern Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Norfolk Southern Corporation Q2 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Also note that this call is being recorded on Thursday, July 23, 2026. And I would like to turn the conference over to Luke Nichols. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Please note that during today's call, we will make certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to future events or future performance of Norfolk Southern Corporation, which are subject to risks and uncertainties and may differ materially from actual results. Please refer to our annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC for full discussion of those risks Thank you for joining us. I'll now turn the call over to Norfolk Southern's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mark George.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Here in Atlanta with me are Brian Barr, our Chief Operating Officer, Ed Elkins, our Chief Commercial Officer, and Jason Zampi, our Chief Financial Officer. Look, a lot's changed since our last call. Most importantly, the sharp inflection in volumes. Initially catalyzed by the Iran conflict that bolstered our energy markets, and that strength has now spread into other markets, including domestic, intermodal and industrial products. With that backdrop, we delivered a strong second quarter with results that exceeded our own expectations, starting with strong volume and revenue growth, culminating in 7% net income and EPS growth. The results are thanks to the dedication of our railroaders and a special shout out to our commercial team who stayed close to our customers during this dynamic environment. As demand strengthened in several markets, our team continued to focus on operating safely while serving our customers. Absorbing the higher volumes coming out of the winter disruptions put pressure on the network, but we've addressed these issues head on. Our team has worked hard to execute with urgency and discipline. We already drove acceleration of the network here in July, and we will continue to progress. Brian will give more detail on these actions in his remarks. Bottom line, I'm holding our team to a high standard. Our customers count on us to maintain consistent, reliable service, and as such, we have to be resilient. Whether it's bouncing back from weather events or absorbing volume surges, we need to deliver the service our customers expect from Norfolk Southern. And our priorities remain clear. safety, service, discipline, cost control, and earning the trust of our customers. Those priorities guided our decisions throughout the quarter and will continue to guide the company moving forward. Now, before we move on, I'd like to touch on the recent appointment of Brian as our Chief Operating Officer. While he may be a new face to many of you, he's certainly not new to Norfolk Southern. Over the last two years, he's led our mechanical organization where his team helped deliver industry-leading locomotive fleet reliability, and he played an important role in optimizing network performance while earning the trust and respect of our organization. He has had a long and successful history on the transportation side as well at our Eastern Pier, and he started his career at Conrail, so he knows our network well. It's another example of the leadership depth we have across the organization and our commitment to developing strong operators who are ready to lead. In his new role, he's building on the progress he himself helped us deliver. Now leading the broader operations organization with a strong foundation in safety and a shared commitment to creating a faster, more reliable network while continuing to innovate and drive more productivity. So with that, let me turn it over to Brian to discuss our operational results in more detail.