诺福克南方 (NSC) 2026年第三季度业绩电话会：营收增长，燃油成本与更高的资本支出

核心要点

• 第三季度营收同比增长14%（含燃油附加费）。扣除燃油后的营收增长6%，创历史新高；同时，各业务板块的总货运量均增长3%。
• 调整后运营比率为65.4%，调整后每股收益为3.62美元。营业利润增长7%，净利润和每股收益均增长10%。
• 燃油价格上涨推动本季度成本增加17%，其中超过一半由燃油导致。与管理层此前对第三季度的预期相比，燃油因素还导致运营比率恶化了约250个基点。
• 诺福克南方公司将2026年资本支出预期从19亿美元上调至约21亿美元，以支持业务增长、提升网络韧性及效率。
• 与2026年初的管理层预期相比，目前预计全年调整后运营费用将略高于90亿美元，其中包括约7亿美元的新增燃油费用。
• 管理层表示，公路卡车运力趋紧和燃油价格高企推动了“公转铁”（卡车向铁路货运转移），但也警告称，如果燃油价格回落且卡车运力恢复，部分获取的市场份额可能会重新流失至公路。

关键财务数据

业务与运营表现

大宗普货货运量增长3%，扣除燃油后的营收增长5%，再创新高。金属和建筑材料受益于工业需求，化工品则受到能源相关活动的支撑。扣除燃油后的普货单车收入（RPU）增长2%，核心定价增长被业务结构因素部分抵消。

多式联运货运量增长3%，国内及高端需求的强劲弥补了国际货运的疲软。扣除燃油后的多式联运营收增长7%，受积极的定价和业务结构推动，扣除燃油后的RPU增长4%。管理层表示，国内非高端业务创下了历史最高第三季度货运量。

煤炭货运量增长3%，主要是由于出口装运量增加，其中包括2026年初宣布的新客户带来的业务。在海运价格支撑下，扣除燃油后的煤炭RPU增长2%。由于电厂停运和局部服务受限，公用事业用煤货运量基本持平。

运营方面，始发准点率提升了12个百分点。诺福克南方公司处理的总吨英里数同比增长5%，同时列车长度和重量均增加了4%。公司通过优化列车计划和编组站运行，每周减少了95班次机车乘务出勤，每天减少200辆在途车辆。

劳动力生产力创下第三季度历史新高。管理层表示，公司仍按计划推进累计至少节省6.5亿美元成本的目标。诺福克南方公司还封存了420台机车，可随时用于支持新增货运量。

安全指标持续改善。今年迄今的美国联邦铁路管理局（FRA）人身伤害指数初步数据为1.08，列车事故率降至1.74，创公司历史最佳纪录。

管理层业绩指引

诺福克南方公司预计，2026年全年调整后运营费用将略高于90亿美元。与年初的管理层预期相比，该展望包含约7亿美元的新增燃油费用。

公司将2026年资本支出预测从19亿美元上调至约21亿美元。管理层表示，增加的支出将通过针对枢纽码头、货运编组站、技术和自动化领域的投资，来支持货运量增长、提升网络韧性并扩大效率。

管理层对近期货运量、营收和盈利增长保持乐观，但表示燃油价格波动将继续影响运营比率的演进轨迹。

公司预计，2026年剩余时间内的煤炭业务增长将以出口为主导，同时受到公用事业用煤需求的额外支撑。管理层还预计，韧性良好的消费需求将支撑国内及高端多式联运货运，而贸易的不确定性仍是国际货运量面临的逆风。

风险与关注焦点

燃油价格仍是短期内最重要的变量。高油价虽然增加了诺福克南方公司的费用，但也改善了铁路相对于卡车运输的成本优势，并支撑了能源相关商品的需求。管理层警告称，持续的高能源价格最终可能会削弱更广泛的客户需求。

“公转铁”的趋势可能并非永久性的。管理层预计，如果燃油价格回落，卡车运力将会恢复；并指出自动驾驶卡车可能会改善公路货运的经济效益和运输时效。

劳动力供给仍限制着铁路快速应对货运量变化的能力。列车及机车乘务人员需要约六个月的培训，管理层表示在此过程中的人员流失率可能相当高。

通货膨胀预计到2027年仍将是成本压力来源。管理层列举了2026年7月生效的3.75%的工资加薪、计划于2027年7月实行的另一次3.5%加薪、医疗和福利成本的双位数增长以及不断上升的保险费用。

天气、电厂停运和局部服务中断也对本季度产生了影响。国际多式联运需求仍受制于贸易不确定性，而低廉的天然气价格继续对国内公用事业用煤构成竞争。

分析师问答焦点

铁路份额增长与定价：管理层表示，在宣布拟议的联合太平洋与诺福克南方公司合并后，铁路行业的竞争环境加剧。诺福克南方公司继续基于服务价值定价，更优质的服务支撑了普货业务的定价，而重新谈判的合同改善了多式联运对市场状况的反应能力。

增长运力空间：管理层表示，图定普货和多式联运服务仍保有运力空间，近期增长主要通过增加列车长度和重量来吸收，而非增加班次。大宗散货和整列直达列车运输属于资产密集型业务，可能会带来更大的运力压力。

多式联运机遇：公司认为在美东地区转移公路货运具有巨大潜力，当地铁路渗透率低于跨洲线路。管理层认为，拟议的合并可以通过减少中转接发并提供单线服务，打造更具可持续性的跨洲运输产品。

资本配置：新增资本将重点用于为增长做准备、扩大多式联运枢纽能力、改善包括芝加哥和哈里斯堡在内的设施、实现编组站道岔自动化，以及为短途驳运服务商提高枢纽运转效率。

工业项目储备：已有50多个客户项目进入设计和施工阶段。管理层表示，在2026年上半年实现不同寻常的强劲增长后，项目活动已趋于常态化，但仍保持在健康且可持续的运行水平。

合并申请：管理层表示，拟议的合并旨在提高服务一致性、网络流动性以及公路向铁路的货运转移。公司还声明，将抵御竞争对手获取网络接入权限的要求，捍卫其在宾夕法尼亚州东部的运营特许权。

业绩电话会议完整文字实录

完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Norfolk Southern Corporation Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Also note that this call is being recorded on Thursday, October 22, 2026.

And I would like to turn the conference over to Luke Nichols. Please go ahead.

Luke Nichols

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 a full discussion of those risks and uncertainties we view as most important. Our presentation slides are available at norfolksouthern.com in the Investors section along with a reconciliation of any non-GAAP measures used today to the comparable GAAP measures, including adjusted or non-GAAP operating ratio.

Please note that all references to our prospective operating ratio during today's call are being provided on an adjusted basis.

Turning to Slide 3. I'll now turn the call over to Norfolk Southern's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mark George.

Mark George

Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are here in Atlanta, and I'm joined by Brian Barr, our Chief Operating Officer; Ed Elkins, our Chief Commercial Officer; and Jason Zampi, our Chief Financial Officer. Our third quarter was strong with steady execution, making notable improvements to our network while delivering solid results. We have an outstanding team of Thoroughbreds, who remained focused on the fundamentals, operating a safe, reliable railroad, serving our customers, growing the business and improving productivity across the network. So a big thanks to all our team.

Collectively, we delivered very strong revenue and operating income growth, while we continued to advance productivity. While we absorbed higher fuel costs this quarter, our team executed well on the controllables maintaining cost discipline while improving the efficiency of the operations. Overall, we're pleased to have our business performed in a dynamic operating environment and believe that the underlying fundamentals of the franchise remains strong. Demand for rail service is growing with encouraging trends in areas such as domestic intermodal and chemicals, which Ed will discuss in more detail. The current macro environment is tightening the truck market, and that helps rail be more competitive. And what you saw in the quarter is us capturing the increased customer demand. Operationally, we continue to make progress. Under Brian's leadership, we've made targeted adjustments across the network and key service metrics are improving even as we handle higher volumes. Brian will detail some of the changes that helped us achieve record productivity performance in the quarter, and we are making other operational improvements while adding resources that will improve network performance going forward. And you should expect to see these efforts show up more clearly as we close out 2026 and continue into next year.

Bottom line, we're handling the volume today and we expect stronger results as the resources come online and our demand pipeline continues to fill out. While we are encouraged by the meaningful progress we're making, we know there's more work to do. And we've consistently said that we hold ourselves to a higher standard. We're accelerating some targeted capital investments into this year to accommodate continued volume growth so that we can deliver the level of service our customers expect. Meantime, we've identified opportunities to build more sustainable processes across our network so we can create a more resilient railroad for the long term.

And with that, let me hand it off to Brian.

Brian Barr

Appreciate it, Mark, and good morning, everyone. I want to begin by thanking the men and women of Norfolk Southern. As I spend time in the field, it is clear our team is putting in the work. Our railroaders managed another demanding quarter overcoming significant weather and operating disruptions while remaining focused on serving our customers and operating safely. As I said on this call last quarter and say it to our teams frequently, successful railroading comes down to doing the fundamentals exceptionally well, originate trains on time, reduce terminal dwell, run the plan and align resources with demand. During the third quarter, our focus on those fundamentals drove clear sequential improvements across the network.

Turning to Slide 5. The most important part of railroading is ensuring our employees and the communities we serve remain safe. Our preliminary year-to-date FRA personal injury index is [ 1.08. ] Our train accident rate is at 1.74, a historical best for Norfolk Southern. Our accident performance continues to show step function improvement, and it's a clear sign of our railroaders commitment to safety. We recognize the progress, but we are not satisfied. We will never stop pushing ourselves to be the safest in the industry.

Turning to Slide 6. We ended the quarter with a clear plan to recover network fluidity by improving originations and reducing dwell, increasing velocity and getting the railroad back on schedule. We delivered sequential improvement across those foundational measures. These are results our customers can see and feel. This quarter-over-quarter improvement demonstrates that our operating actions are producing results.

Moving to Slide 7. Our progress came despite significant August weather across the north. On our networks high-speed quarter. The team quickly restored infrastructure, removing hundreds of downed trees, repairing multiple washouts and handling widespread power outages by activating strategic reroutes and repositioning resources. While the historic wind and rain interrupted some of our July momentum, it did not derail our progress. We made meaningful improvements versus the prior quarter as you can see by the metrics on the slide. We also drove substantial year-over-year progress, operating 5% more gross ton-miles in quarter 3 2025. The network to absorb this growth almost entirely through our existing infrastructure, driving a 4% increase in both train length and weight compared to the same period last year.

Turning to Slide 8. We we generated strong productivity in a higher volume environment. Our on-time origin performance increased by 12 percentage points, and we continue to see progress here daily. Running an on-time network is essential to driving cost out. Workforce productivity was a quarter 3 record. We have begun localized hiring to support growth and targeted train plan consolidations will reduce labor intensity where demand is strongest, allowing us to continue capturing truck-to-rail conversions. In the third quarter, the team made improvements by redesigning car connections at terminals and removing costly handlings to reduce dwell. In the quarter, we eliminated 95 crew starts per week and took 200 cars offline per day. These adjustments allowed the network to accommodate 3% carload growth in the quarter.

Let me give you a couple of examples of our recent plan improvements. First, we consolidated smaller trains between Birmingham and Macon. This saves 14 crew starts per week, reduces the number of locomotives needed and delivers cars faster to the customer. And another example, we shifted 50 daily switch cars from a NOLA terminal to Allentown Yard. That change freed up manpower for road service and Enola and moves the switching work to a lower cost per car location. It also removed 6 blocks at Enola, creating additional yard capacity. Adjustments like these are keeping our network fluid and agile. When trains originate on time and move faster, recruits decline locomotives turned more efficiently, cars spend less time in terminals and crews spend more time moving freight. That is how service and productivity reinforce one another. I'm proud of the way our operating team continues to improve the railroad. That work has us on track to deliver at least $650 million in cumulative cost savings.

We made meaningful progress during the quarter, but there is more work ahead. Our standard is a railroad that operates safely, executes consistently and deliver service our customers can plan around every day. We will keep leading from the front running the plan and delivering results.

I will now turn the call over to Ed.

Ed Elkins

Thanks a lot, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Our commercial results this quarter reflect a strong macro backdrop and a tightening truck market, which has allowed NS to drive growth across our network. Volume grew in every one of our business groups, and we set an all-time record for revenue less fuel.

Let's move to Slide 10. We achieved 14% overall revenue growth for the third quarter, which is inclusive of fuel surcharge. And when we look at revenue on a less fuel basis, we delivered a 6% increase to set an all-time record. We finished the quarter with broad-based strength, achieving 3% volume growth in each of our business verticals. These gains were supported by elevated global energy prices, a robust industrial backdrop and favorable truck market dynamics. RPU less fuel increased by 3% as our teams focused on pricing to the market. Looking within merchandise, volumes increased 3% and revenue less fuel achieved another record, increasing 5% from a year ago, driven by strength in our metals and construction franchise and by strong energy demand in our chemicals markets. Our POS fuel grew 2% year-over-year as strong core pricing was partially offset by some mix.

Let's shift our focus to our intermodal business. Volumes there increased 3% reflecting strong freight demand and a tighter truck market conditions that favorably positioned our intermodal partners to succeed with particular strength in our domestic and premium segments, which was partially offset by international. Overall, intermodal revenue less fuel increased by 7% and positive mix and a positive price environment pushed RPU less fuel up by 4%.

Looking at our coal franchise, volumes grew 3%, largely due to increased export volumes, which include the new customer that we announced earlier this year. And despite strong demand, utility volumes were relatively flat versus '25 due to plant outages, along with some localized service challenges that limited our ability to capture upside. RPU less fuel increased by 2%, lifted primarily by tailwinds from favorable seaborne pricing.

Let's go to Slide 11, and here we highlight several dynamic factors that continue to influence our market outlook. The inflection of fuel price has generated opportunities across energy-related commodities, which could carry forward for the duration of the conflict in the Middle East. However, if energy prices remain elevated in the longer term, it could begin to impact overall customer demand. We're keeping a close eye on this interplay. The tightening truck market bodes well for highway to rail conversions across markets such as forest products and consumer products. And lastly, new project activity in industrial development remains ahead of last year. Although the pace has normalized following an exceptionally strong second quarter. And as we look forward, we remain positive on the outlook for new industrial development activity as tariff-related concerns ease. Additionally, we have a subdued positive outlook for vehicle production. Industrial activity has maintained its momentum with manufacturing continuing its expansion for the ninth consecutive month. We are maintaining an optimistic outlook for the industrial sector despite ongoing volatility in the broader economic landscape.

Global energy prices, while a significant wild card, could continue to support near-term opportunities in markets like natural gas liquids, sand and crude oil. Looking specifically at our intermodal markets. truck market conditions continue to trend positively. Rising rates reflect tighter capacity against a steady demand backdrop. And we expect resilient consumer demand to support our domestic and premium segments in the near term as new orders increase and retail sales have shown modest growth. And on the other hand, more and trade uncertainty will continue to weigh negatively on international volumes on our network. And overall, we stand poised to take share from the highway as elevated fuel prices make conversion from truck to intermodal more attractive to our customers. As we turn to coal, the outlook is positive for the remainder of 2026, and we expect growth to be led primarily by our export franchise, but will also be supported by favorable market conditions within our utility business.

Let's go to Slide 12. Throughout the third quarter, we continued to build momentum across the business. Stronger service performance is enhancing customer confidence and their confidence in supporting market share growth and at the same time, new digital and operating capabilities are enabling us to grow more efficiently. Our digital investments are delivering tangible benefits for both customers and our operations through greater automation, visibility and better ease of doing business. Whether customers are requesting a rate or seeking information on an active shipments we're delivering tools that help deliver faster and more consistent answers. We are streamlining the end-to-end rate request process through a single intuitive platform that allows customers to submit manage and track their requests in one place. This reduces manual touch points, it increases transparency and accelerate decision-making. We're focused on delivering an increasingly seamless customer experience.

At the same time, we're also enhancing shipment visibility by combining real-time network data, historical trends and machine learning and super intelligence to adapt to changing network conditions. The result is a more accurate and more actionable shipment information, enabling customers to plan more effectively, operate more efficiently and ultimately make decisions with greater confidence. As these capabilities continue to scale, our goal is simple: Make Norfolk Southern the easiest railroad to do business with so that we win more freight in competitive markets. And as always, we want to thank all of our customers for their continued partnership and business. The entire NS team is aligned around delivering the service that our customers need every day building trust as a bottle partner for them in their supply chains.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Jason to review our financial results.

Jason Zampi

Thanks, Ed. I'll start on Slide 14 with the reconciliation of our GAAP results to the adjusted numbers that I will discuss today. During the quarter, we incurred $42 million in merger-related expenses and $28 million of net costs related to the Eastern Ohio incident. Adjusting for these items, the operating ratio for the quarter was 65.4%, and earnings per share was $3.62.

Slide 15 details the comparison of these adjusted results versus last year. As expected, higher fuel prices were a significant driver of both the revenue and expense increases accounting for about half of the variance in both line items. Last quarter, we were expecting fuel to be a tailwind to our third quarter operating ratio. However, as I previewed a couple of weeks ago, fuel prices actually increased as we progressed through the quarter, and that negatively impacted our operating ratio by about 250 basis points from where we thought we would be. That said, higher volumes and RPU in the quarter helped drive a 10% improvement in earnings.

Drilling further into the expense line items on Slide 16. Costs were up 17% for the quarter. As I just discussed, over half of that increase was driven by the rise in fuel expense. I'll also remind you of last year's significant land sale that impacts the comparison to prior year as well. Setting aside those items, continued inflationary pressures and volumetric cost increases are the primary drivers in our other P&L line items, including comp and [ benefits, ] purchased services and materials.

Summarizing our financial results on Slide 17. Despite the inflationary headwinds we faced, we drove an increase of 7% in operating income and delivered a 10% increase in both net income and earnings per share. As we move into the fourth quarter, we continue to manage through the volatility of fuel prices that will influence the trajectory of the operating ratio. That said, we are optimistic about the current demand environment and our ability to grow volumes, revenue and earnings.

Mark, I'll turn it back over to you.

Mark George

Okay. Let's turn to Slide 19. Looking ahead, our priorities remain clear. Most importantly, we will continue to operate a safe and reliable roll road. Safety remains the foundation of everything we do, and we remain fixated on that. Network velocity increased from Q2 despite the higher load on the network and some disruptive events that Brian talked about. Our team is actively recruiting and training new T&E employees to augment our resource base to accommodate growth while we still drive smart productivity and efficiency actions. Accelerating and maintaining a SaaS network is essential to provide the consistent high-quality service that our customers depend on through their businesses. Now turning to guidance. The fuel environment has remained elevated. As a result, our updated adjusted OpEx guidance for the full year is to be just north of $9 billion, which includes approximately $700 million of incremental fuel expense compared to our view at the beginning of the year. While higher fuel prices continue to pressure our cost structure, our team remains disciplined on managing controllable costs and delivering productivity improvements across the network.

I'm exceptionally proud of this team as they've managed through the volatile environment this year while managing to keep core operating costs within the original guide we set forth at the beginning of the year despite stronger volumes. The underlying business remains healthy, and we are committed to balancing growth with operational efficiency. Now we are increasing our capital expenditure outlook and expect 2026 CapEx to be roughly $2.1 billion, which is up from $1.9 billion originally. The incremental reinvestment in the franchise is geared toward positioning us to capture growth opportunities that we see on the horizon as well as to enhance network resilience and efficiencies. We're encouraged by the growth we're seeing across parts of our business, but we also recognize that today's environment won't persist indefinitely. We view most of the macroeconomic factors that are driving the recent truck to rail conversions as temporary. But with the freight market today is showing us is that when shippers are given a rail product that offers better value than the highway, they move freight to rail quickly. And the Union Pacific Norfolk Southern combination is designed to create those conditions permanently.

Okay. With that, we will now open the call to questions. Operator?

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And your first question will be from Scott Group at Wolfe Research.

分析师问答

Scott Group

Just a couple of things, Mark, your comment about the truck to rail conversion being temporary. Just add some color there. Is your thought that like when fuel goes down, we lose the share back to truck? Or are you saying that incremental share gains will get tougher whenever fuel goes down or I don't have another thought on that. So I'm just curious about that. And then, Mark, you've also just like in recent quarters, like been talking about the competitive dynamic, and I'm just wondering how that's evolving and how we should be thinking about pricing going forward in a world of higher truck rates and better rail volumes?

Mark George

Scott, thank you very much. Okay. So yes, look, the competitive environment, it's definitely pretty robust right now. I think you see all the competitors offering new products coming together in the wake of the announcement of the merger, we've definitely seen a more enhanced competitive environment. So for sure, we're seeing more competition. The good news is, and I think that's all good, by the way, for the rail industry as a whole because we are now finally getting some share back from the highway, certainly aided by the the rising fuel prices, but still, nevertheless, I think the rails cooperating together is really a good thing even if it creates a tougher situation for us. So definitely, that -- I would confirm that dynamic exists. And look, when I talk about temporary, what I mean here, Scott, is obviously the rail -- sorry, the fuel pricing has pushed freight to the highway. We're seeing a large part of our intermodal growth has been driven exactly by highway to rail conversion. No doubt about it. Now that is having an impact on the trucking market. And certainly, there's some capacity limitations now in trucking. But over time, when fuel goes back to where it was, you can expect that some will revert back to a large portion of what we've gained will eventually, and it might take a year or 2, but it will eventually go back to the highway unless this industry does some very structurally different things, which is really what I was alluding to there at the end. So that's why I think the merger is the real difference maker here in trying to make permanent some upward inflection on share recapture. So hopefully, that clarifies it.

Operator

Question will be from Jonathan Chappell at Evercore ISI.

Jonathan Chappell

Ed, every single rail call every single quarter asked about pricing, and we get some broad-based answer. But if we look at your RPU ex fuel across all three segments, they're all really strong. So I understand that intermodal, you have some truck benefits, [indiscernible] kind of the benchmarks, which is out of your control, but merchandise continues to set a record. So can you kind of help us frame out kind of what was controllable versus what wasn't and kind of where you are in kind of recapturing price as the service continues to improve.

Ed Elkins

Sure. Thanks for the question. I'll try not to be high level and generic even though it might be unavoidable in some cases. But look, we've had a strong history of price over a long period of time. And having a service product that is recovering that allowed us to exhibit additional value for our customers. And that includes our industrial customers. Now it also helps that what we see as a pretty robust industrial backdrop when it comes to the macro. We've got 9 months of expansion now in terms of manufacturing and new orders continue to sort of propel what's going on out there. We see a strong industrial development pipeline of our own, which we think is indicative also of a strong macro. So it is a growth environment right now on the industrial side of our business, which is where, of course, our merchandise business mostly lives. And we've been able to take advantage of the service that we've offered with that value to really try to price to the value of that product. And now other people say that, and we all aspire to it, but it's been a key part for us. And that really, in the merchandise segment, you think about it, we've had some some mixed headwinds in that side of the business as well, which kind of waters down our efforts when it comes to ARPU, which, of course, is not really price. So we're proud of that. On the Intermodal side, certainly, mix plays a role there as well. But I will tell you that we've spent -- and I've told you this before, we spent a lot of time renegotiating our contracts and reconfiguring how we adapt to changing market conditions. So I think we're in the really early innings of seeing that happen. And I really expect that we'll continue to see that happen as this environment persists. Thanks again for the question.

Operator

Next question will be from Jason Seidl at TD Cowen.

Jason Seidl

Mark, you sort of mentioned if the industry doesn't take a few steps that you fear that some of this stuff that you've gained, the traffic that you've gained can be lost over the next 2 years. I guess when you look at that assumption, are you assuming that capacity comes back to the trucking market as it has historically because it does appear to be some structural changes in and at least some of the regulatory regime here. And also, aside from sort of creating that transcontinental option that you and the UP are proposing, what are other things that you think the industry can do to retain this traffic?

Mark George

Great question, Jason. Thank you. Look, yes, I think eventually, capacity does come back into trucking when the prices -- the areas to entry are very low. So capacity will come back when fuel prices go back down. And I think that presents a competitive challenge for rail. I think don't forget the threat of autonomy with trucking and what that also will do to make the product more attractive and appealing, just aside from the cost benefit for the truckers, they're going to also have a lack of rest hour requirements when trucks are driving. So they're going to also deliver products faster than they currently do today, which is already faster than the railroads. So those are the things that I'm talking about. We have to structurally change. So -- what we can do aside from the merger is we still have to be consistent and reliable with our delivery. And the challenges that railroads can't always flex to sharp inflections in volume. We saw that post COVID. And I think you see a little bit of that now, even when you start to see volumes hit beyond a couple few points, it starts to stress your crude capacities. So railroads have to be much more nimble. The challenge we all have as an industry is to bring on T&E resources, it's a grind. These are hard jobs to fill. You have considerable attrition through a 6-month training process. So you have to basically higher double what you think you need because you're going to end up losing half by the time you get to the end of a 6-month training process. And that means you have to predict 6 months in the future what the volumes are going to be. And if you get that wrong, you might be either short or you could be long on resources. And there's an area called Wall Street that thinks that you can be perfectly volume variable but it's a challenge. So we have to somehow crack that nut and figure out how to ensure that we've got adequate buffer in our resources to be able to accommodate a little bit more volume when we don't expect it. And let's just talk about recent history. In Q4 of last year, we were all feeling really terrible about the volume environment, and we weren't feeling very optimistic looking into 2027 about the volume environment. But it was exactly then you had to have the conviction to go and really augment your T&E resources and significantly increase for what eventually became a volume inflection in the middle part of 2026 or really the second quarter of 2026. If you get that wrong, you saw challenges in your service product. So that's a real-time recent example of the challenge railroads have, and we have to crack that nut. Thank you.

Operator

Question will be from Chris Wetherbee at Wells Fargo.

Chris Wetherbee

And maybe I can pick up on that last answer. So I guess as we think about service and your capacity for growth and maybe take into context with the bump up in the CapEx guide. Can you talk about how much capacity that you have? I mean it seems like service in the last couple of weeks has gotten a little bit slower. Maybe that's from volume growth. Obviously, there's a lot going on out there from a demand perspective. So maybe you can just talk about big picture how much capacity you have to grow and sort of where you're going to be deploying the capital that you're raising?

Mark George

Yes. I'll start off, and we'll tag team this answer. But look, we have capacity. And I think even in this quarter, you'll see that we've taken on volume. We haven't really added a ton of train starts. A lot of this is through filling out existing trains. So it hasn't really had too big of an impact. That said, there are -- there have been some more asset-intensive volume that's come on the unit train side. So certainly, those are areas where when you have more more bulk traffic and more unit traffic that you've got to move, that's where you end up feeling a little bit more of the pinch on the capacity side. But otherwise, in our regularly scheduled merchandise product and our intermodal products we've got capacity. But Brian, why don't you jump in with your views.

Brian Barr

Yes. I mean we're walking through the service there regularly. And as I mentioned here earlier in the call, with some of the operational changes we make, we're creating capacity with train consolidations with removing touches on existing cars. As we mentioned, we are hiring here at some strategic locations that build resiliency into the plan we're on path with it and in a few strategic locations. And also with the locomotives, we have 420 that are in storage currently that are there for capability as volume increases as we grow. We've already been able to take on 3% more shipments this quarter and absorbed that into the existing network. Although, we're 4% bigger on length and weight, we still have a lot of capacity there on existing service.

Operator

Next question comes from Brian Ossenbeck at JPMorgan Chase.

Brian Ossenbeck

Just a quick follow-up for Brian and a broader one about resourcing. Brian, we've been hearing a lot about trade driver challenges and availability, and that's not necessarily something you guys covered directly or managed directly, but it's clearly part of the whole supply chain on the intermodal side. So I wanted to see if there's anything along those lines, if you're feeling any constraints if there's any opportunities to work with your channel partners in there as this volume growth continues to be pretty significant, especially the conversion. And then, Mark, maybe just big picture, anything from technology perspective or maybe even a work contract negotiating perspective to get more flexibility to help out with some of that variability of filing with that long lead time item for which is obviously labor.

Mark George

Yes. Well, I'll start here, and Brian can kick in as well. Look, we're investing at the terminal level to make sure that our drayage community is a fluid and as efficient as they possibly can be. They're a key component to what we do, specifically, not only in markets where they're doing in deliveries, but we also do a lot of cross towns in the current environment, and they're really important there, too. Is there stress, yes, there is stress across the entire supply chain, particularly for trucks and drivers. And I think that, that that's really been a part of the story here that people have talked about, but I'm not sure attention that they paid to it, but the supply of drivers and the capability there has been drawn down some. But we're investing to make sure that the drivers that come to our terminals are being efficient with their time. and that we are delivering value for them too. And Brian, I don't know if you want to talk about specific investments or where we're doing that. But I know you're looking at a number of places across the network.

Brian Barr

Yes. So with growth -- I mean, we have locations right now that are hitting lift records here currently. So we have 5 locations going to hit a quarterly lift record within the intermodal ramps. We have 10 that hit annual. But we've been doing ongoing expansions and improvements in several of the terminals with the growth mindset and with increasing our capability. And we're hitting a few locations there in Chicago, Harrisburg, a few key corridors specifically.

Mark George

Yes. And I think technology, in general, is something we're investing in. I think in the intermodal terminals, we're looking at a fair amount of autonomy opportunities there that will help us with moving boxes and scanning and hustling and things like that. So those will help with our terminal fluidity. But on top of it, Brian, you're doing a lot of investments in some of the yards automating switches and doing some other things that will help alleviate some of the manual work requirements that we have. Correct?

Brian Barr

Correct.

Mark George

So those are -- Jason, do you want to add anything else on some of the -- where the CapEx is the incremental CapEx?

Jason Zampi

Yes. I mean, our priorities with respect to capital allocation has always been first and foremost, to invest in the business and no change there. I think what you're really seeing here in this increase that we talked about at the end of the year is really preparing for growth. And that's really important. A lot of this takes some time to get in the ground or to purchase these assets. So it's important to get in ahead of that. The only other thing I would just add from a technology perspective is really what we've done on the portals and the benefits that we get out of that from efficiency and safety. So I think that's another key thing that's been important for us.

Mark George

It sure has been. And I think the key thing here is when you look at our accident rates, they have been consistently declining for 3 years, and we are really at the envy of the industry levels of accidents, and that just means more fluidity on line of road, which means less resources required when you have breakdowns when you have accidents, if you really congest you, you need a lot more human resources to move things. It creates a lot more re-crews. We are more fluid because we are better online a road, thanks to the portal investments we've made. So let's move on to next question.

Operator

Which comes from Bascome Majors at Stephens.

Bascome Majors

When you originally framed the cost to run the business this time last year, I think that was a helpful framework. And it certainly played out where you've had the capacity to grow and largely maintain service levels in the network. And I appreciate the comments earlier about the buffer and how you're managing through that and capacity. As we look to next year, it looks like 4Q, the cost guidance is, call it, $2.4 billion. There's actually a lot of volume variability to serve the business into next year. But can you talk through the inflationary components and sort of the expectations that you're setting so we can get our own expectations for what that number looks like for 2027 versus 2026?

Mark George

Thanks a lot, Bascom. Yes. So I'll let Jason talk to that. I mean we're not going to give 2027 guidance now, but certainly, inflation has been a challenge for this industry in the past couple few years. Obviously, the labor contracts are at the root of it. But on top of it, all the inflation we've seen elsewhere in materials and vendor costs have really hit us. We offset as much of that as we can with productivity. We've had a couple of great years with productivity, and we'll continue to drive cost out of the business there. But Jason, do you have some first looks at inflation.

Jason Zampi

Yes. I think just from a kind of early perspective here, I mean, we signed signed wage agreements with the unions 1.5 years, 2 years ago now. And so we have a good line of sight to that. So we've got a 3.75% increase that just went into effect in July and another 3.5% next July. So we know what the headwinds are there from a wage rate perspective. The other two things I'd call out, and I'm putting fuel aside here, obviously, is a bit of a wildcard. But the other thing is health and welfare benefits. Those have been very significant. Double-digit percentage increases in that, and we see that continuing as we move into next year. And then the other thing that I would just call out is insurance. Our cost to to receive insurance coverage as continues to go up. And I don't see that abating at all as we move into next year. So I think those are some big drivers that you should expect as we move into 2027.

Mark George

And I'd imagine Bascome will do a similar type of guide next year and give you a cost envelope.

Operator

From Richa Harnain at Deutsche Bank.

Richa Talwar

So I wanted to ask maybe a more bigger picture one. One of the key strategic attractions of the merger is obviously the opportunity to convert more over the road freight to rail. However, we're seeing more and more evidence that conversion potential in Western and transcontinental corridors may be more limited than in the use, of course, that makes sense. But your largest IMC partner, for instance, reported a stark difference in growth for as versus transcon. So given your strong Eastern franchise, how are you thinking about that difference? And is it primarily structural given like shorter haul lanes being more truck competitive, or does it largely just reflect the absence of maybe a sufficiently reliable and competitive rail service offering in transcon, which the proposed merger is trying to to fix. I'm just trying to understand like what the structural sort of impediments are and how those get corrected from this merger?

Mark George

Okay. Thanks, Rich. Ed, why don't you take a shot at that, please?

Ed Elkins

Sure. Look, we think that there are opportunities to convert truckload business to the railroad, no matter what the length of haul, whether it's long or short. Certainly, the transcon lanes have had more attention paid to them over the past 30 years with a variety of services. And so the penetration in those lanes is naturally higher than it is in the, what I would call, the East, which is for us, east of Mississippi. The results that you're seeing from a variety of our partners, I think reflect that reality that there's a tremendous amount of opportunity in the east to convert truckload to the railroad with the right kind of service and value. And I think we've become pretty good at that over time. We can always get better. What I think the merger is going to help us do is increase our penetration opportunity in those transcon lanes because we will have a better service and it will be a permanent change. It will not be an Interline product. It will be a local product that is durable across not only months, but years and decades. And so it is a -- we view that as a perpetual opportunity for share shift in those transcon lanes. And at the same time, the new company will have what I would consider to be and a prime opportunity to convert a lot of the freight that still rides the highway in the east that would much rather save money, pay fuels and deliver value to their customers using intermodal.

Operator

Next question comes from Brandon Oglenski at Barclays.

Eric Morgan

This is Eric Morgan on for Brandon. I guess I'll just ask one on the coal outlook. It turned positive. I think you mentioned driven by export but also the favorable conditions in utility business. So can you just help square that with the relatively low natural gas prices and how much line of sight you'd say you have on that business? And just any thoughts on how that shakes out for RPU. I appreciate it.

Ed Elkins

Yes, sure, sure. The -- on the domestic side, we saw our plants burn exceed the amount of tons that we delivered to them really for most of the year here. So we think that there's some replenishment that's going to happen. I agree with you that the low natural gas prices are going to be a strong competitor, but we do think that there will be some retalking going on for the remainder of the year and we know this maybe in the next year, but we'll see about that. On the export side, it's a pretty favorable environment when I think about pricing. You look at the third quarter, U.S. low vol ended up somewhere around $200 and API 2 was at [ $126. ] And right now, we're -- recently, I should say, we're at [ $210 ] and [ $125. ] So those are constructive levels, we think went into the fourth quarter. So yes, our outlook is a level. We're trying to be realistic with what the market can deliver on the utility side, but we think there's still some opportunity, particularly with the good partners that we have in the east here to deliver export tons.

Operator

Next question comes from David Vernon of Bernstein.

David Vernon

So Ed, I wanted to talk a little bit about intermodal. When you think about the trials and tribulations in the last 12 months, obviously losing some volume on the repositioning of some J.B. Hunt volume. How should we be thinking about the volume ex that headwind? And then as you think about your ability to not only touch on price next year, but also to think about new service introductions, things like that. What are you thinking about on the product side? I know you're in this sort of merger waiting game, but are you guys doing more work to think about where you can expand the network or add some services that could kind of tap into this elevated highway cost market?

Ed Elkins

Well, yes, we are, of course, and there's old say and my dad use, which is you make heal the sun shines. And so we're exploring every opportunity to deliver new value to our customers. And we'll see what emerges from that over the next few weeks and months, but I'm very bullish on that. When I think about our capability and what we've done, and think about the third quarter, we had the best domestic non-premium third quarter in history for volume. And that is -- that's saying something, given where we were a year ago, right.

Mark George

In the business we had a year ago.

Ed Elkins

In the business we had a year ago. We had a really good quarter on the truckload side of our business. And I'm very, very encouraged by that in a couple of ways. One, we have great partners that are continuing to drive conversion out there on the street, which is incredibly important. And number two, we have a network that can deliver value very ably for those customers. And I'm going to speak or past you and talk to our customer base and say, I really want everyone to be confident that we can continue to deliver that value. We've got the capability. We've got capacity, and we're building more capacity. And I think we're in a really good shape there.

Operator

Next question comes from Tom Wadewitz at UBS.

Thomas Wadewitz

So I wanted to ask a bit I guess you'll see this, but it's merger related. I think one of your primary competitor has pointed out that you have a really attractive intermodal network and access in Eastern Pennsylvania. And I think they'd like to get some access to some of it. How do you think about the capacity utilization of Harrisburg-Allentown, some of those key intermodal hubs? And just to kind of operational complexity of potentially having tracked rights or something where another railroad would get access to it, and not obviously that you're going to do that. But just kind of high level, is that something that's operationally doable and where you sit in terms of capacity of Eastern intermodal network that I think kind of fairly presented is a nice advantage for you?

Mark George

Look, I mean, we have a very attractive franchise in Eastern Pennsylvania, no doubt the envy of others. And no surprise people are going to take moonshots to ask for access for it. Heck, I'd love to have access to Bone Valley in Florida. And I'd love to have access to South Dakota. There's all these other areas on the network everyone wants access to, but guess what, the tracks in the ground. We're going to live with our -- we're going to defend our franchise, and we're going to defend our network. And we're going to trust that the STB will view things like this through sober eyes and pretty firmly rejected, like they rejected a lot of the asks during the CPKC -- every ask during the CPKC merger application. So it's not really worth answering the rest of that question, Tom, because it's not going to happen. We're not giving up that franchise. I can't see a scenario where the STB would even entertain it. That's it. Thank you.

Operator

Next question comes from Ari Rosa at Citigroup.

Ariel Rosa

So it sounds like you've detailed an attractive opportunity set here from a volume standpoint. But I was hoping you could talk about kind of how you see the attractiveness of the business that's available and just how discerning you have to be in terms of freight selectivity and expectations around that business kind of sticking around. I understand there's obviously a service component on your end. But as we think about just kind of apples-to-apples, is that business that you want? And how do you have to price that appropriately to ensure you get attractive returns.

Ed Elkins

Sure. Thanks to good question. We have a team of folks that are out on the street every day, including right now, looking for new business. And that team is very well trained and really capable smart folks, they're going to bring opportunities back that are attractive and accretive to the business. And that's the first mission they have. and I'm very, very confident that they're doing a great job of that, and they're going to continue to. You think about what business sticks around, well, here's the business that will take around a matter of what happens. And that is if we can deliver value in such a way that our customer can realize that value quickly and demonstrate that value for their customers, then we're going to be in great shape. And that means service, service, and that's what we're focused on. It means capacity, capacity capacity, and that's what we're focused on. And I'm very confident that as we move forward, our portfolio is only going to get more attractive in the current environment.

Operator

Next question comes from Walter Spracklin of RBC Capital Markets.

James McGarragle

This is James McGarragle on Walter this morning. I just wanted to ask on the volume outlook. Last quarter, you flagged an update on your industrial customer investment activity. You mentioned it's normalized a bit after a strong H1. So I guess, was that a surprise to you that, that normalize? And any specific numbers you can give us surrounding that opportunity just to help us think about the opportunity in terms of carload growth there into next year.

Ed Elkins

Thanks for the question. We have over 50 industrial products that have moved into that design and construction phase, and that's the sort of the demarcation line, we think, between an opportunity that's theoretical versus one that's actually going to be executed. So we're encouraged by that. Yes, the first half of the year, we saw some acceleration and actually outperformance of that pipeline. And it has not decelerated but receded to the what I would call a normalized run rate. And that's okay. normalized run rate is very sustainable for us over a long period of time. Probably the more surprising thing was the acceleration in the first half. And so I feel like we're on track. We always have a budget every year for what we think is going to happen, and we're back sort of on that run rate now. And that's a very healthy thing. And frankly, very encouraging. In terms of carloads, we really can't find that here. But we're encouraged.

Operator

At this time, we have no other questions registered. I would like to turn the conference over to Mark George.

Mark George

Okay. Thank you, operator, and thank you, everybody, for participating in the call. Look, I think I'll just wrap by saying, look, we've put an application forward for a merger. It's been -- it's more thorough than any merger proposal ever presented by an American Railroad. And it includes the first ever use of a complete data set as opposed to sample data. We now have greater visibility to the Board's time line. And we believe that the case for our merger is going to become clearer as the evidentiary record continues to build. And it is no doubt in my mind that we are very much in the public interest with this merger application. A unified network is going to provide customers with more opportunities to grow and compete placing new markets within reach, as Ed talked about, at a lower cost, and that enhances affordability for the U.S. consumer and the broader economy. I think second, reducing handoffs, improving network fluidity and delivering a more consistent service outcome. That's what's going to matter to the STB when they look at this, that service reliability, resilience and broader supply chain performance. and a more fluid network also means it's going to help the communities. We'll have fewer interchanges, fewer stoppages and that's going to translate into fewer block crossings. That's in the public interest, for sure. The freight conversion from the highway goes without saying we're going to save on overall diesel fuel consumption as a nation because we're up to 5x more fuel efficient than trucks. On top of that, we're going to make the highways safer by having fewer trucks on it. When you remove 3.6 billion truck miles, that translates to about 1,750 fewer accidents and injuries, which you can do math and estimate that's about 65 fewer fatalities. Not to mention for our employees being part of a larger company we are going to have more opportunities for employees, and we're actually going to start growing again, well paid union jobs. So we're excited about the progress we're making on the merger application of the STBs put out this time line, and we'll move on and continue to focus on running the business in the meantime. So thank you all for participating, and take care.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude the conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we ask that you please disconnect your lines.