Overview
Stefan Loeb described Norfolk Southern's first-and-final-mile strategy as a direct response to a long-running industry problem: the broader economy and freight market have grown, while rail volume has remained largely flat. His message was that railroads cannot wait for economic growth to reach them. They must earn more business by providing reliable service, making rail easier to buy, and building solutions with short lines, transloaders, ports, truck carriers, industrial developers, and customers.
The strategy is built around what Loeb called creating a future that “outcompetes the present.” It combines dependable core operations with simpler commercial processes and partnerships that extend Norfolk Southern beyond the physical limits of its own network.
Make rail easier to use
Loeb contrasted the ease of arranging a truck through Uber Freight—roughly three clicks and 90 seconds in the example he observed—with his own attempt to determine how to ship by Norfolk Southern, which took approximately 72 clicks and led to an 800 number. He presented the comparison as an illustration, not a formal benchmark, but the lesson was clear: environmental benefits and heavy-haul economics are not enough if rail remains difficult to access.
Norfolk Southern's approach begins with reliable, consistent service and a resilient network. From there, the commercial organization is expected to ask customers and partners what would make a move work, acknowledge where the railroad does not have all the answers, and design the full transportation package around the customer's origin and destination. That package may require a truck, transload, short line, port, another Class I railroad, or several of those elements together.
“Everything beyond the map”
Loeb defined first and final mile broadly: terminals, short lines, trucks, land, and—most importantly—people and relationships. The network he described includes 253 short-line partners, more than 300 transload locations, intermodal terminals, ports, and Norfolk Southern's Triple Crown trucking subsidiary.
His point was that shippers care where their product needs to go, not where one railroad's track ends. First-and-final-mile teams therefore focus on extending reach beyond the map and coordinating all of the partners required to create a usable door-to-door solution.
Short-line growth model
Short lines were the first major focus because they routinely outperform broader rail-volume trends and are closely connected to local customers. Norfolk Southern began with a pilot covering 40 interchanges. For each one, the railroad and short line jointly defined success, opened a shared communication channel, monitored performance daily, and required both sides—not just Norfolk Southern—to agree that the interchange was working.
Loeb cited strong results from that model:
- Volume at participating short lines increased 6.9% in 2024 and another 7.5% in 2025.
- Across the broader short-line portfolio, volume rose 6.2% in 2025.
- Short lines account for more than 40% of Norfolk Southern's industrial-products traffic.
The organization also separates growth conversations from day-to-day operating disputes. One team concentrates on field sales and new opportunities; another addresses interchange and service problems. Loeb said that separation prevents a current operating disagreement from crowding out a promising growth discussion. Field salespeople are placed in the territories they serve so they can understand local industries and build long-term relationships.
Norfolk Southern has also more clearly separated sales from marketing functions. Sales teams are rewarded for securing appropriate new volume, while pricing goals and marketing oversight provide checks against unprofitable growth. Loeb presented the change as an effort to make actual volume creation a more visible and rewarded commercial priority.
Transloads as growth engines
Norfolk Southern's network includes more than 300 independent and railroad-affiliated transloads. Loeb argued that these facilities should be managed as more than safe and reliable operating sites: with the right operator, quick commercial decisions, and investment in new capabilities, they can actively create business from customers that do not have direct rail access.
He cited transload growth of 3.3% against merchandise growth of roughly 1% in the comparison shown during the presentation. He also described how the company worked through its safety and legal requirements to begin handling butane at properly equipped facilities, using containment and other safeguards rather than rejecting the commodity by default.
Norfolk Southern's partnership in Chicago-area Great Lakes Reload illustrated the company's flexible investment approach. Loeb stressed that the railroad does not intend to own every terminal; it will use different partnership structures where they add strategic capacity, reach, or industrial-products expertise.
Doraville: designing around local switching
Loeb highlighted a new short-line arrangement with Jaguar Transportation in Doraville, Georgia. The operation became Norfolk Southern's 253rd short-line relationship and, in his description, its first new short line structured entirely around volume growth rather than cost reduction.
The Doraville transload handles more than 50 commodities. Under the prior plan, a Norfolk Southern crew spent much of its shift sorting and spotting individual cars and could generally serve the facility once per day, five days per week. Mainline disruptions or crew limits could interrupt that work and also affect other nearby customers.
Under the new model, Norfolk Southern delivers all Doraville-bound cars into the industrial park, while Jaguar operates both the short line and the transload. Jaguar can then switch the facility as customer and truck schedules require. Loeb said this dramatically expands the facility's practical capacity and illustrates a broader principle: Class I railroads are strongest at long-haul movement, while local partners can be better positioned for intensive, flexible switching.
Industrial development
Loeb also pointed customers, short lines, transloaders, economic-development groups, and site selectors to Norfolk Southern's online property-search tools. The railroad lists sites on its own network and on connecting short lines, including properties that also connect with competing railroads. Its industrial-development effort now reaches beyond local agencies to work directly with site selectors in Europe and Asia. The objective is to identify projects early and make rail-served locations easier for investors and manufacturers to evaluate.
His view of network integration
Loeb offered a personal, growth-focused perspective on the potential Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern combination. Drawing on his earlier experience with the Wisconsin & Southern, he described customer opportunities from Wisconsin to markets such as Columbus and Indianapolis that were difficult to win because a rail move could require several handoffs through Chicago and possibly another short line. Trucking often won those lanes on simplicity and transit time.
His argument was that network integration could open freight lanes that are currently impractical, giving sales teams more viable solutions to offer. He presented this as his own operating and commercial perspective rather than a prediction of the regulatory outcome.
Audience Q&A
- Should railroads dedicate crews to local first- and final-mile service? Loeb said lean staffing can cause local crews to be reassigned when a mainline disruption occurs, which then interrupts customer service. He believes the industry may need to accept some additional crew capacity for resilience, but noted that this requires enough growth to support it. He cited labor agreements with annual wage increases of 4% and no corresponding efficiency improvement as one reason volume growth matters. He did not present a final Norfolk Southern policy decision.
- How can data and visibility help? He pointed to tools such as RailPulse, particularly for tracking empty cars and giving customers better estimates of when cars will be spotted. He said rail must move closer to the simple, app-based visibility that trucking customers already expect.
- What about committed-gateway pricing and the merger review? Loeb declined to prejudge the merits before the formal Surface Transportation Board process. He said supporters and opponents would have opportunities to participate, present evidence, and challenge the proposal, after which the Board could accept, modify, or reject elements of it.
- Has Wall Street already concluded that approval is unlikely? Loeb called that conclusion premature because, at the time of the session, the formal regulatory clock had not yet begun. He expects a detailed review rather than a quick or predetermined result.
Bottom line
Loeb's update was ultimately a call for practical growth: protect service, simplify the customer experience, put salespeople closer to local markets, treat short lines and transloads as strategic partners, and design around the full trip rather than a single railroad's map. His examples showed Norfolk Southern trying to move from waiting for freight to actively building the operating and commercial conditions needed to win it.