CSX CORP

Overview

CSX Corp is a Jacksonville, Florida-based freight transportation company whose core business is rail-based freight service. It provides traditional rail service as well as intermodal container and trailer transport, rail-to-truck transfers, and bulk commodity operations, making it part of the freight railroad and broader surface transportation sector.[1] Its operations are organized around four primary lines of business: merchandise, intermodal, coal, and trucking; the merchandise franchise serves diverse end markets including chemicals, agricultural and food products, automotive, minerals, forest products, metals and equipment, and fertilizers.[2][3]

The company’s network is concentrated in the eastern United States. Through its principal rail subsidiary, CSX Transportation, it operates an approximately 20,000 route-mile rail network serving major population centers in 26 states east of the Mississippi River, the District of Columbia, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. CSX also has access to over 70 ocean, river, and lake port terminals and connects with other Class I railroads and more than 240 short-line and regional railroads, extending its reach across key North American freight corridors.[4]

CSX states that its purpose is to capitalize on the efficiency of rail transportation to serve North America, and its vision is to be the best-run railroad in North America.[5] In 2024, CSX generated about $14.5 billion in revenue and had more than 23,500 employees, underscoring its scale as one of the larger freight rail operators in North America.[2][6] [1]+5

Products & services

CSX’s core transportation products are rail-based freight services: traditional rail service, intermodal containers and trailers, and rail-to-truck transfers.[7] Its largest product set is merchandise service, which carries chemicals, agricultural and food products, automotive shipments, minerals, forest products, metals and equipment, and fertilizers.[3] In 2024, merchandise accounted for 61% of CSX’s revenue, with about 2.6 million carloads and roughly 42% of total volume.[3]

CSX’s intermodal offering centers on container transportation that combines rail economics with truck flexibility, primarily serving major eastern U.S. markets and moving manufactured consumer goods.[8] The company said this business handled about 2.9 million units in 2024 through roughly 30 terminals, representing 46% of volume and 14% of revenue.[8] CSX Intermodal Terminals owns and operates the terminal network and also provides drayage for some customers, while TRANSFLO provides transloading services that transfer freight from rail to trucks for customers without rail access; its largest end markets are chemicals and agriculture, including plastics and ethanol.[9] CSX also operates Quality Carriers, a bulk liquid chemicals trucking business, and reported trucking as 6% of revenue in 2024.[9][10]

Another major transportation product is coal service, which moves domestic coal, coke, iron ore, and export coal to power plants, steel manufacturers, industrial plants, and deep-water ports; coal represented 15% of revenue in 2024.[11] CSX’s equipment base includes double-stack well cars that can carry two intermodal containers vertically, along with specialized freight cars such as gondolas for metals and woodchips, multi-level flat cars for vehicles, covered hoppers for grain and fertilizer, open-top hoppers for coal and aggregates, insulated box cars for food and beverages, and flat cars and containers for intermodal and other finished goods.[12]+7 [7]+13

Geographic presence

CSX’s rail operations are concentrated in eastern North America. Through CSX Transportation, the company operates an approximately 20,000 route-mile network serving major population centers in 26 states east of the Mississippi River, the District of Columbia, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Its network also has access to more than 70 ocean, river, and lake port terminals along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, the Mississippi River, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence Seaway, and it connects with more than 240 short-line and regional railroads. The company’s acquisition of Pan Am expanded its reach in the Northeastern United States.[20]

Within intermodal, CSX Intermodal Terminals owns and operates a system of terminals predominantly in the eastern United States, and its intermodal network of approximately 30 terminals serves all major markets east of the Mississippi River. The company’s largest yards and terminals by 2024 volume included Waycross, Georgia; Bedford Park Intermodal Terminal in Chicago, Illinois; Nashville, Tennessee; Selkirk, New York; Cincinnati, Ohio; Avon in Indianapolis, Indiana; Fairburn Intermodal Terminal in Atlanta, Georgia; Walbridge in Toledo, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and Chicago, Illinois.[9]+3

CSX is based in Jacksonville, Florida, and lists its principal executive offices at 500 Water Street, 15th Floor, Jacksonville, Florida 32202. The company had more than 23,500 employees at the end of 2024, but the filing does not provide a geographic employee breakdown or revenue by country or region; revenue is instead reported by business line.[7]+3 [20]+8

Business segments

CSX reports two operating segments—rail and trucking—but only one reportable segment, Rail, because the railroad is managed and evaluated as an integrated network. The Rail segment includes all CSX entities other than Quality Carriers and also includes equity-method investment income; the trucking segment is not material enough for separate reportable-segment disclosure and is instead included in the reconciliation to consolidated results. In 2024, Rail generated $13.7 billion of revenue, or about 94% of consolidated revenue, while Trucking generated $851 million, or about 6%.[25]+2

Separately from segment reporting, CSX disaggregates revenue by market/line of business. In 2024, Merchandise was the largest category at $8.9 billion, about 61% of revenue, and includes chemicals, agricultural and food products, automotive, minerals, forest products, metals and equipment, and fertilizers. Coal contributed $2.25 billion, about 15%, and covers domestic and export coal movements as well as coke and iron ore. Intermodal contributed $2.05 billion, about 14%, and centers on containerized freight that combines rail service with truck flexibility, primarily for manufactured consumer goods. Trucking contributed $844 million, about 6%, and is comprised of Quality Carriers revenue. Other revenue was $499 million, about 3%, and functions as a smaller ancillary bucket that includes items such as demurrage and storage-related charges.[24]+6 [25]+8

Company history

CSX traces its heritage to 1827, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered; over the following decades, numerous railroads were combined through merger and consolidation to form what became CSX.[30]

CSX Corporation was incorporated in Virginia in 1978, and in 1980 it was created through the merger of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries, a combination that linked northern population centers and Appalachian coal fields with growing southeastern markets.[31] The railroad was further integrated when CSX Transportation absorbed Seaboard System Railroad in 1986 and Chesapeake & Ohio in 1987.[32] A later milestone came with CSX’s acquisition of key portions of Conrail, which extended its reach into New England, the New York metropolitan area, Chicago, and other Midwestern markets; integrated operations over CSX’s share of the Conrail system began on June 1, 1999.[31][33] [30]+3

Sources

• CSX CORP — Full financial report (2024 Y)
  29 citations

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• s2.q4cdn.com[5]
• CSX CORP — Full financial report (2023 Y)[29]
• www.trains.com[32]
• content.edgar-online.com[33]