Norfolk Southern could move HQ to Atlanta, report says

A video from Norfolk Southern Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer James Squires to NS employees last week strongly indicated NS could move its headquarters from Norfolk, Virginia, to Atlanta.

Squires' video message, which was not posted publicly on the NS website, was reported by The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk's daily newspaper.

For more than a month, the railroad has declined to say more than it is developing a new long-range plan with several options, including the "possibility of consolidating headquarters into a single location," though no specific location was indicated, the newspaper reported.

That changed late last week with Squires' video, which "makes clear that an Atlanta move is now front-and-center," with a potential timetable in place for when employees would make the move, according to the article.

"We are considering the consolidation of our Norfolk headquarters into Atlanta, but only if many aspects can be resolved to make sense for Norfolk Southern, its shareholders, and its employees," Squires, the company's chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement containing a link to the nearly five-minute video, the paper reported.

NS is slated to report its third-quarter financial results tomorrow morning.