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A softening economy and declining traffic didn’t hamper Union Pacific Corp.’s financial performance in the first quarter. The Class I set first-quarter revenue, income and operating ratio records.

Revenue totaling $3.8 billion increased 4 percent, operating income of $719 million jumped 19 percent and the railroad’s operating ratio improved 2.4 points to 81.3 compared with first-quarter 2006.

By commodity, chemical revenue increased 9 percent, agricultural revenue rose 8 percent, and energy and intermodal revenue each went up 4 percent, while industrial products and automotive revenue decreased 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

In addition, net income jumped 24 percent to $386 million and total operating expenses increased only 1 percent to $3.1 billion compared with first-quarter 2006.

UP registered the financial gains even though first-quarter carloads declined 2 percent to 2.3 million units primarily because of severe winter storms, a softer housing market and decreased domestic intermodal volume.

“We’re making good progress on improving profitability and increasing operating efficiency,” said UP Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Young in a prepared statement.