JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX has laid off 166 management employees, about 5% of the non-union workforce, in cuts announced to employees today (Jan. 7).
Other cost-cutting moves, according to Trains sources, include cuts to some management benefits and furloughs to 193 conductors, including 61 covered by the railroad’s Baltimore & Ohion union agreement and 132 on former C&O, Seaboard Coast Line, and Louisville & Nashville lines. An additional 157 conductors were placed in unassigned status, meaning they were not awarded jobs for the week when bids opened. Travel has also been cut back and extra boards have been trimmed.
In a message to employees, CEO Steve Angel said the positions were eliminated “as part of our efforts to streamline the organization given challenging economic conditions.” Those affected had been informed before the message was released.
“We understand the effect this decision has on them and their families,” Angel said, “and we are committed to supporting them with competitive severance packages and employment transition services.”
Angel replaced Joe Hinrichs as CEO in September, at a time when activist investor Ancora Holdings was pressuring the company to oust Hinrichs [see “CSX names new chief executive,” Trains.com, Sept. 29, 2025]. Ancora said a change was warranted because of what it called “anemic stockholder returns” and “disastrous operational performance,” as well as the railroad’s failure to pursue a merger at a time when there were indications that Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern were in merger talks.
CSX’s fourth-quarter traffic was up 1.3%. But more profitable merchandise traffic was down 2.1% while lower-margin intermodal volume was up 5.2%. Chief Financial Officer Kevin Boone told an investor conference last month that fourth-quarter earnings would take a $40 million hit because of lower coal shipments tied to an Oct. 25 derailment, as well as lower than expected auto shipments related to an aluminum shortage [see “October coal train derailment …,” Dec. 2, 2025]. Those issues come on the heels of a third quarter that saw an 8% decline in operating income [see “CSX earnings slump …,” Oct. 16, 2025].
CSX will release fourth-quarter earnings results on Thursday, Jan. 22.
— To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
Well, we all knew Angel was just going to be a schill for Ancora so now they have started cutting train crews (Conductors) in an attempt to prop up CSX’s OR. Maybe Ancora shoulf do everyone a favor and just cache out before they begin to damage their franchise as well. Its almost like if they make CSX bad enough they can convince BNSF to merge with them. Sorry guys, it ain’t happening. BNSF is happy catering to J B Hunt and CMA-CGM and as they have stated numerous times they don’t see a merger as advantageous for them. And being privately held by Berkshire Hathaway that is one thing they (Ancora) can not change… Add a CN merger would not make things anymore competitive because they overlap too much. Same for CPKC, plus they can’t afford a CSX Merger anyway… At least the Trump Treasury Department is taking action against predatory equity funds in the single family home arena. Maybe they can be convinced to do the same in the railroad industry… At least, one could always hope…
Every employee at both NS and UP had better play close attention to this.
All of the NS UP employees are “guaranteed employment” so they are safe.
There is a lot of sarcasm in that sentence though.
Well of course merchandise traffic is down. Class ones including CSX have focused on intermodal while ripping up customer switches for the past 40 years. Bad service at a premium price hasn’t helped either. And when the wheels fall off and Wall Street starts screaming then it’s time to cut employees and it’s usually the ones doing all the work. Hasn’t worked out well in the past and it won’t work this time. Angel is just one more Wall Street who couldn’t care less about the long term future of the railroad industry.
CHRIS —- Which is a shorter list (in any given region of America), to list the former carload shippers, or to list the few that are left.
Charles, at least in the southeast where I live the shorter list I believe would be the few carload shippers that are left. The many that have been abandoned by the railroads would fill several pages. And in my travels around the country, from what it looks to be true almost everywhere.
Maybe they weren’t abandoned as much as they were priced out of the market by rate cutting truckers… Time will tell if that is the real situation or not, but with Equity Funds like Ancora buying up available RR stock to rip out easy selloff pickings when service suffers again by these cuts, well then they will cut off some more heads and blame it on other nefarious reasons of their own making…