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Volume at CSX Corp. has been down 16 percent to 17 percent the past couple of weeks compared with the year-earlier period, a “modest improvement” from the 20 percent year-over-year decline the railroad recorded for the three months following Thanksgiving, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Michael Ward said yesterday.

Ward was in the unusually warm Windy City yesterday to unveil CSX Transportation’s ultra-low emission GenSet locomotives, which can reduce nitrous oxide and particulate matter emissions by 80 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent, CSX officials say. The railroad has eight of the locomotives in operation, including four at Barr Yard in Riverdale, Ill., a south Chicago suburb. The GenSets will be used to switch rail cars.

After a brief press conference with local officials on track 8 at Chicago Metra’s LaSalle Street Station, Ward — wearing a green tie on St. Patrick’s Day — held one-on-one interviews with members of the media. Standing in front of the dark blue and yellow GenSet locomotives, Ward said that while no one knows when the economy will improve, CSX execs remain bullish on the industry, citing the railroad’s descision to set aside $1.6 billion for capital expenditures this year. That’s down from $1.7 billion in 2008.

Although CSX has parked 10.8 percent of its 3,700 locomotives and 29.5 percent of its 95,000 rail cars since the last few months of 2008, the railroad can get that equipment back online “pretty quickly,” Ward said.

As for the economic signposts that could give him clues to the near-term direction, Ward said he’s keeping an eye on the gross domestic product and Industrial Production Index, a monthly indicator released by the Federal Reserve that measures output, capacity and capacity utilization in manufacturing, mining, electric and gas utilities.

CSX expects to issue its first-quarter financial and operating results after the market close on April 14.

— By Desiree J. Hanford. A Chicago-based free-lance writer, Hanford covered the equities market, including transportation, for Dow Jones & Co. for 10 years.