Shaw emphasizes customer service at NS shareholders meeting

Norfolk Southern Railway will deliver long-term value to shareholders by becoming more customer-centric and operations-driven, President and CEO Alan Shaw said at the company's annual meeting held last week.

“My first priority, and the top priority of every member of the Norfolk Southern team, is to restore service to the quality our customers expect and deserve,” said Shaw in a press release.

Being customer-centric means accelerating the company’s new TOP|SPG operating plan, hiring the conductors needed to execute the plan and making it easier for customers to do business with NS, he said.

"Delivering safe, reliable and resilient service with competitive pricing, helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals and making it easier for our customers to ship by rail will enable Norfolk Southern and our partners to capitalize on market conditions that remain favorable for truck-to-rail conversion," he added.

Shaw's remarks follow recent complaints from rail shippers and customers about rail-service problems from the largest U.S. Class Is. The Surface Transportation Board has held hearings, ordered Class Is (including NS) to submit service recovery plans and proposed other rules in response to the service crisis.

Also at the annual meeting, NS shareholders elected Amy Miles to serve as independent chair of the board for a one-year term to expire in 2023. She is former chair and CEO of Regal Entertainment Group Inc.

In addition, shareholders elected Shaw and 12 others to serve one-year terms as NS directors:

• Thomas Bell Jr., chairman of Mesa Capital Partners;

• Mitchell Daniels Jr., president of Purdue University and former governor of Indiana;

• Marcela Donadio, former Ernst & Young partner and oil and gas sector leader;

• John Huffard Jr., co-founder of Tenable Network Security Inc. and Tenable Holdings Inc.;

• Christopher Jones, former corporate vice president and president of the technology services sector of Northrop Grumman Corp.;

• Thomas Kelleher, chairman of UBS and former president of Morgan Stanley;

• Steven Leer, former chairman and CEO of Arch Coal Inc.;

• Michael Lockhart, former chairman, president and CEO of Armstrong World Industries Inc.;

• Claude Mongeau, former president and CEO of CN;

• Jennifer Scanlon, president, CEO and director of UL Inc.;

• James Squires, former chair and CEO of NS; and

• John Thompson, former SVP and general manager of BestBuy.com LLC.