Railroad Companies

CSX

CSX train and tracks toward Southeast Newport News, 2024.

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. CXS political contributions are posted on their website as of 2025.

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.

Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern train and tracks through Lambert's Point, 2024.

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 is connected to the Corporation Political Action Committee (PAC) Norfolk Southern Good Government Fund, which publishes their political contributions bi-yearly as of 2025.

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.

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 Surface Transportation Board, the regulator that approves rail mergers, 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 merged network.

Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad Company

Collis Potter Huntington's rail line, the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O), began exporting coal out of Southern Newport News in 1881. Huntington purchased land in the Tidewater area starting in 1865, identifying its economic potential as a natural harbor. In 1871, Huntington oversaw the C&O, which used incarcerated workers to construct the rail lines between Richmond, Virginia and the Ohio River Valley. Huntington founded a town in West Virginia for the development of coal mining, which was named Huntington, West Virginia.

In 1881, Huntington's C&O built the Peninsula Subdivision rail line that runs from Richmond's Church Hill to the tip of Hampton Roads in what was then Warwick County. This became the foundation of coal export from Newport News, which was then a sleepy farm town.

Norfolk & Western Railway

In 1885, the Norfolk & Western (N&W) rail company was born out of the reorganized Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio railway (AM&O). Frederick J. Kimball, a civil engineer with an interest in geology, became its first Vice President. Kimball led N&W's foray into shipping and exporting coal, with the company opening a pier in Lambert’s Point for export coal in 1886.

There had already been an export terminal in Lambert’s Point since 1851, where it was constructed as part of the Norfolk & Petersburg railroad. Many of the early residents of Lambert’s Point were employees of the terminal. Also in this year, N&W purchased the Pocahontas Coke and Coal Company, a conglomerate that formed the coalfieds’ largest landowner and represented 400,000 acres of bituminous coal reserves.

By 1900, Norfolk was the lead coal exporter on the East Coast. Pier 6 at Lambert’s Point is now the largest and fastest facility for transloading coal in the Northern Hemisphere. (source: Norfolk Southern)

In 1982, N&W merged with Southern Railways to form Norfolk & Southern, now known as Norfolk Southern, to compete more effectively with CSX.