Companies: Railroads and Coal

Railroad Companies in Southeast Virginia

Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern Corporation (abbreviated as NS) is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States, and is one of the five biggest railroad operators in North America by revenue. It operates in 22 states and in Washington, D.C, and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA (though it was based in Norfolk, VA until 2021). Most of Norfolk Southern's revenues come from the transportation of coal, coke, and iron ore. The railway's predecessors date back to the 1830s. NS is one part of a duopoly (with CSX) of railroad companies across the Eastern US.

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

CSX

CSX Transportation (or CXS) is a Class I freight railroad company operating across the east coast from a variety of coal sources (most in West Virginia) and companies. Similar to Norfolk Southern, the company was formed via a wave of mergers, and it accounts for about half of the eastern coast duopoly. The railroad company is a rival of Norfolk Southern.

The parent company, CSX Corporation, is based in Jacksonville, Florida. CXS political contributions are posted on their website as of 2025.

Railroad Monopolies

In 2018, CSX attempted to press monopoly charges on NS, based on their attempted monopolization of crucial “belt-line” railroad, the NPBL (Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad), that connects various tracks on the way to the Norfolk International Terminals (NIT). The suit alleged “NS and the NPBL have used the NPBL as a chess piece to establish and maintain NS’ monopolistic control over intermodal transportation in and out of [Norfolk International Terminals] by making it practically impossible for any other rail carriers to provide intermodal service to NIT”. NS owns a 57% majority of NPBL and CSX the remaining 43%.

Coal Terminals

Both Kinder Morgan’s Pier IX and 10 and Dominion Terminal are based in Newport News, with Pier 6 at Lamberts Point across the water in Hampton Roads. Together, these three terminals represent 23% of all coal export capacity in the US, handling 35% of all US coal exports in 2019.

Lamberts Point Terminal

Pier 6 at Lamberts Point, in operation since 1885, is the largest coal export facility in the U.S., and owned and operated by Norfolk Southern.

Southeast Community Terminals

The CSX railroad carries coal down the Peninsula to two privately-owned coal terminals in Newport News. The Southeast Community coal terminals (Kinder Morgan’s Pier IX and X, and Dominion Terminal) began operations in the 1880s and currently have two operators — Kinder Morgan and Dominion Terminal Associates. Kinder Morgan can ship about 16 million tons per year, and the Dominion Terminal (owned by Alpha Metallurgical Resources and Core Natural Resources) moves up to 22 million tons of coal each year.

Dominion Terminal Associates

The company that runs Dominion Terminal, is owned in part (65%) by Alpha and Contura, two coal mining giants that merged in 2018, and 35% by Arch Coal Inc. The terminal is served by CSX Transportation.  

Coal Companies

Core Natural Resources (previously Arch Resources, or Arch Coal) is the second-largest supplier of coal in the United States, with 11 active mines. In August 2024, Arch Resources and Consol Energy announced that they entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock merger of equals to create Core Natural Resources. source. In January 2025, the merger was successfully completed.

Alpha Metallurgical Resources (formerly known as Contura Energy) is a is a Tennessee-based mining company that extracts, processes, and markets steam and metallurgical coal. It operates across Central Appalachia.       

United Coal is a producer of coking coal located in the Central Appalachian region of the United States. United Coal owns several mines in West Virginia, including in Affinity, WV and East Gulf, WV. In 2009, Ukrainian business group Metinvest, controlled by Rinat Akhmetov (a Ukrainian billionaire and businessman), purchased the company for an estimated $1 billion.

History of Railroad Monopolies

Monopolies, especially railroad monopolies, may be naturally occurring due to limited competition because the industry is resource intensive and requires substantial costs to operate.

The four major Class I railroads in the US are:

• BNSF Railway
• CSX Transportation (CSX)
• Norfolk Southern Railway (NSC)
• Union Pacific Railroad (UNP)

Through consolidations and mergers, the various railroads along the North American east coast had morphed into just two by the end of the last century: CSX and Norfolk Southern. These two railroads have a duopoly on the East Coast.

Railroads were some of the first mega-corporations in the US and the world. The railroad monopolies had the power to set prices, exclude competitors, and control the market in several geographic areas. Although there was competition among railroads for long-haul routes, there was none for short-haul runs. Railroads discriminated in the prices they charged to passengers and shippers in different localities by providing rebates to large shippers or buyers. These practices were especially harmful to American farmers, who lacked the shipment volume necessary to obtain more favorable rates

The Big Four, a group of four investors, Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, orchestrated the first transcontinental railroad (Central Pacific Railroad) in the 1860s that laid the groundwork for one of the most comprehensive and oppressive monopolies in the history of America. The US government was heavily involved in the development of the transcontinental railroad, with Congress passing the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 that gave government bonds and land grants to the railroad companies.

Industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, who is credited with developing Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company and the incorporation of Newport News, Virginia, as an independent city, was one of the Big Four. He invested in and led the development of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) (which became CSX), to connect Richmond, VA to the Ohio River by 1873. The goal then, as continues today, was to transport bituminous coal (mostly from West Virginia) to ships for global export. In 1881, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) extended its rail lines from Richmond to Newport News. Coal exports from Newport News, Virginia continue to be a major part of the city’s economy.

Notable Railroad Monopoly Legislation

1887: The Interstate Commerce Act created an Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee the conduct of the railroad industry. With this act, the railroads became the first industry subject to Federal regulation. (The act was abolished in 1995 and remaining functions were transferred to the Surface Transportation Board).

1890: The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce and consequently prohibits unfair monopolies. The Act broadly prohibits anti-competitive agreements and unilateral conduct that monopolizes or attempts to monopolize the relevant markets, and gives the Department of Justice authorization to enforce it via lawsuits.

1899—1901: First wave of mergers take place across the economy, forming mega trusts like Standard Oil.

1906: The Hepburn Act is a United States federal law that expanded the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and gave it the power to set maximum railroad rates. This led to the discontinuation of free passes to loyal shippers, and taking significant power away from railroads in an attempt to reduce price gouging.

1914: The Clayton Antitrust Act defines unethical business practices, such as price fixing and monopolies, and upholds various rights of labor. It served to supplement and strengthen the Sherman Act and still has effects in modern legislation.

1976: The federal government created Conrail to take over the potentially profitable lines of multiple bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and Erie Lackawanna Railway. The creation of Conrail was seen as evidence that US Railroads were no longer de facto monopolies in transportation. Conrail became privatized in 1987, after the Staggers act was passed and it began to turn a profit.

1980: The Staggers Act is a US federal law that deregulated the American railroad industry to a significant extent. It replaced the regulatory structure that had existed since the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and enabled the industry to reverse its previously declining share of the U.S. surface transportation industry.

1999: Conrail is acquired and split roughly evenly by CSX Corporation (42% of assets) and the Norfolk Southern Railway (58% of assets). This solidified the duopoly of Norfolk Southern and CSX on the east coast, which has persisted since then.

Railroad Unions

A labor union is an association of workers formed to negotiate collectively with an employer to protect and further workers’ rights and interests. The history of railroads is closely tied to a number of unions and strikes as well as specific legislation related to both.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

The Great Strike began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in response to the cutting of wages for the second time in a year by the B&O Railroad. The strike, and related violence, spread to Cumberland, Maryland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Chicago and the Midwest. The strike lasted for 45 days, and ended only with the intervention of local and state militias, and federal troops. This was the first strike of its kind, and led to further labor unrest that continued into the 1880s, such as the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886 involving over 200,000 workers.

Racialization of Unions

The skilled trades still were overwhelmingly native-born white Protestant males in the 19th century; and because they earned relatively higher wages, they were able to pay dues for strike funds, sick pay, unemployment assistance and burial insurance. They were reluctant to organize with unskilled (usually Irish and Italian) Catholic immigrants.

Likewise, the segregation of the railroad brotherhoods for much of their history meant that a parallel network of unions emerged to serve the interests of black railway workers.