Railroad Companies

CSX

CSX train and tracks toward Southeast Newport News, 2024. Photograph by Sally Pusede.

CSX Transportation (CSX) is a Class I freight railroad company operating across the eastern U.S., especially in and out of West Virginia. The company was formed through a wave of railroad mergers, with its parent company, CSX Corporation, now based in Jacksonville, Florida.

CSX is one part of a duopoly with Norfolk Southern. In 2018, CSX attempted to press monopoly charges against Norfolk Southern because of their attempts to control the crucial Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line, of which Norfolk Southern owns a slight majority.

CSX transports coal from the Appalachian Basin, especially in West Virginia, to Southeast Newport News serving Dominion Terminal Associates and Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals.

Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern train and tracks through Lambert's Point, 2024. Photograph by Adrian Wood.

Norfolk Southern Corporation (abbreviated as Norfolk Southern or NS) is a Class I freight railroad company based in the eastern U.S. It is one of the five biggest railroad operators in North America by revenue and one part of a duopoly with CSX. Norfolk Southern operates in 22 states and Washington, D.C. Currently headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Norfolk Southern was based in Norfolk, Virginia until 2021. Most of the company's revenue comes from the transportation of coal, coke, and iron ore.

Norfolk Southern was created from the 1982 merger of Southern Railways and Norfolk & Western (N&W), which was itself borne out of the reorganized Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio (AM&O) Railway.

Norfolk Southern was responsible for a high-profile train derailment, fire, and chemical release of toxic pollutants that included dioxin in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3, 2023. In March 2023, the National Transportation Safety Board announced a special investigation into Norfolk Southern's safety practices, as the accident in East Palestine was just one of a series of recent incidents involving the company.

Norfolk Southern owns and operates the coal export terminal, Norfolk Southern Terminal Pier 6. In 2024, there were two separate accidents at the Norfolk Southern Terminal Pier 6, when train conductors were serious injured, with one requiring portions of an arm and leg to be amputated. For more details, see: Coal Terminals.

Merger with Union Pacific

In July 2025, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific announced their deal to merge, creating the first American transcontinental railroad—the Union Pacific Transcontinental Railroad. The deal must first be reviewed by the Surface Transportation Board (STB), with the companies aiming to close by early 2027. The STB approves rail mergers and can require that Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern take actions aimed at limiting their influence, like giving competitors the right to run trains on their network.

Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O)

Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Map, 1916. From the National Archives.

C&O terminal in Southeast Newport News, March 10, 1920. Photograph from the National Archives.

In the late 1800s, industrialist Collis P. Huntington extended the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railway down the Virginia Peninsula to a deep-water pier on the James River in Southeast Newport News. In 1881, this railroad extension was called the Peninsula Subdivision connected a new coal pier in the small unincorporated community that would become Southeast Newport News, through Richmond Virginia, and with previously isolated bituminous coal fields in West Virginia. The Peninsula Subdivision transformed Newport News from a small riverside community into a busy port city. C&O is now CSX.

The C&O used incarcerated workers to construct the rail lines between Richmond, Virginia and the Ohio River Valley.

There is evidence that rail workers face high exposures to coal dust, for example, in the following testimony recorded by the Repair Lab.

R. H., Newport News Resident: "My father worked for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad and he was a brakeman with the coal that was put into the ships so the ships could have heat. And so there were eleven children in our family, so he had to work very hard. He did a lot of eighteen hours a day. He was there a lot with the dust and the coal all the time. You understand what I’m saying? On a regular basis, daily. And so, what happened is that my dad lived to be 89 years old. And when he was sick at the end, my sister [was] looking out for him and everything. So they were at the doctor. So when they went to the doctor, the doctor said, 'Oh, well, you know, he has emphysema.' She said, 'No, we ain't never heard that. He's with the C&O doctors.' They hadn't said a word about it. Not one word. Didn't even know he had emphysema. Okay, so I just want you to know that that dust, you know, did contribute to the emphysema. It's just not right. And we have, look, my church has a church right there on the 20^th and Jefferson corner. It's just all dust. It's dust now. And so you know that's got to be coming into the building. We don't want dust coming in. Do something. Something has to be done. I don't know what, but it has to be something done. So many years. So many years. So I'm just, you know, I'm hoping that somebody will take responsibility. So that's what it is. Nobody’s taking responsibility for it. Take responsibility."

Documents

• Coal Loading Facilities by Origin, CSX, 2024
• Repair Lab, Coal Dust in Southeast Newport News is a Nuisance and There Are Solution (Corrected), August 2024