Norfolk Southern Railway

The Norfolk Southern Railway (reporting mark NS) is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway.^[4] The company operates 19,420 route miles (31,250 km) in 22 eastern states and the District of Columbia,^[5] and has rights in Canada over the Albany to Montreal route of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City.^[6][7] Norfolk Southern Railway is the leading subsidiary of the Norfolk Southern Corporation.

Norfolk Southern maintains 28,300 miles of track,^[2] with the rest managed by other parties through trackage rights.^[8] Intermodal containers and trailers are the most common commodity type carried by NS, which have grown as the coal business has declined throughout the 21st century; coal was formerly the largest traffic source. The railway offers the largest intermodal rail network in eastern North America.^[9] NS was also the pioneer of Roadrailer service. Norfolk Southern and its chief competitor, CSX Transportation, have a duopoly on the transcontinental freight rail lines in the Eastern United States.

Norfolk Southern is the namesake and leading subsidiary of the Norfolk Southern Corporation, based in Atlanta, Georgia;^[10] it was headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, until 2021.^[11] Norfolk Southern Corporation was incorporated in Virginia on July 23, 1980, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol NSC.^[12] The primary business function of Norfolk Southern Corporation is the rail transportation of raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods^[13] across the Southeast, East, and Midwest United States.^[14] The corporation further facilitates transport to the remainder of the United States through interchange with other rail carriers while also serving overseas transport needs by serving several Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. The Union Pacific Railroad has announced plans to acquire Norfolk Southern in a deal worth $85 billion.^[15][16] If approved by regulators, it would create the first transcontinental railroad network in the United States.^[17]