Inside Freight

Research evidence excerpt

Inside Freight

Railroads

FLASH

FLASH: Inside Freight June 18, 2026

Rail Headcount Declines and Labor Productivity Gains

Continued in May

●Rail Headcount Declines Continued in May. The STB released May headcount

data for the rails (U.S. operations only) earlier today. Total headcount ticked

down slightly sequentially and declined 3.6% y/y in May, marking 24 straight Scott Group sgroup@wolferesearch.com

monthly y/y declines. And with volumes up 4.2% y/y in May, labor productivity (646) 845-0721

trends remained positive y/y for the 28th straight month. Notably, the 780bp y/y View Scott’s Research

View Comp Table increase in labor productivity in May was the best since January 2025. That said,

we have seen a moderation in rail service metrics thus far in 2Q, particularly for Ivan Yi

the U.S. rails. iyi@wolferesearch.com(646) 845-0724

●CSX - Strongest Labor Productivity Again. CSX's headcount declined 5.5% y/

Jacob Lacks

y in May, most among the rails for the 4th straight month. Headcount declined jlacks@wolferesearch.com

another 0.6% m/m in May and has now declined sequentially for 11 straight (646) 845-0726

months. And with volumes up 6.4% y/y in May, CSX generated very strong Cole Couzens

labor productivity of almost +1,200bp y/y, best among the U.S. rails for the 9th ccouzens@wolferesearch.com

straight month. Headcount for CSX is now tracking down about 1% q/q in 2Q Preston Webb

pwebb@wolferesearch.com

QTD, better than our 2Q estimate of flat sequentially.

●NSC - Labor Productivity Strengthens. NSC’s headcount declined 1.2% y/

y and 0.2% sequentially in May. So with volumes up 4.4% y/y in May, NSC

reported 560bp of labor productivity, its highest level in 12 months. Headcount

for NSC is now tracking down 0.5% q/q in 2Q QTD, also better than our 2Q