Q4 Kickoff and Operational Focus

Sean Ireland

Good morning, team. Hard to believe, but we’re already five days into Q4—so if you felt like this year’s been a blur, you’re definitely not alone. Last week? Pretty packed, actually. The big headline is, of course, that we’ve officially welcomed Steve Angel as our new CEO. Big news for CSX and definitely a signal that things are moving, not just at the top, but filtering all the way down to our day-to-day in the Northeast Region. New leadership always brings new energy.

Sean Ireland

Now, speaking of milestones, I’ve got to highlight the opening of the Howard Street Tunnel. Some of you have heard me talk about it before—and if you go back to Episode 3, we actually celebrated knocking that project out ahead of schedule. That’s not just a feather in our cap, that’s a real, tangible improvement that’s going to give us more reliability in how we move freight through Baltimore. The anticipation’s paid off and honestly, the teams who hustled on that project deserve every bit of recognition. You, me, the customers—we’re all going to see the benefits in car velocity and fewer network bottlenecks. And here we are, ready for the next set of changes, looking at moving the M652/M653 train pair back to the Blue Ridge now that it’s reopened. Always something to look forward to.

Sean Ireland

Shifting gears a bit, I wanna talk about safety—because, if you’ve been tuning in, you know it’s never just a checkbox for us. As of October 5th, we rolled out the Q4 minimum safety engagement target. So what does that mean in the field, right? This quarter, our big focus areas are switches, securement, riding equipment, and, not surprisingly, shove moves—that’s still our biggest opportunity. I’ve attached some details to the notes, but really, it’s about zeroing in on those tasks that drive most of our human factor incidents.

Sean Ireland

There’s also the Customer Hazard Inspection day coming up Wednesday, October 8th. It’s a system-wide event—teaming up with engineering out at our customer sites, especially where we’ve seen repeated issues or concerns flagged by the frontline. The aim here? We want to get ahead of those risks before they turn into repeat incidents. I always say: one walkthrough, one tough conversation today, saves a hundred headaches down the road.

Sean Ireland

Now let’s talk specifics. Over the last month, we had three injuries tied to entraining and detraining equipment. Shove moves are still leading the way as a cause for human factor incidents—I sometimes feel like a broken record on that, but it matters. Sometimes, opening up those pre-job questions and really digging into the day’s hazards can set the tone and keep guys thinking proactively about their exposure. So, this quarter, I want to see thorough job safety briefings and exposure reduction discussions. Ask the open-ended questions and make sure we’re not glossing over the real risks.

Sean Ireland

Oh, and operational testing. Every shift (except during the blitz), make sure you’re hitting at least one switch card and one riding equipment test. And we can’t gloss over those follow-up tests—since September 1st, we’ve got 33 people across the region who still need a follow-up from a critical operational test exception. I know it’s hard to juggle with everything else, but those touchpoints matter. Assistant Superintendents, you’re on deck for in-field coaching, especially during night and early AM hours as part of this Q4 plan.

Sean Ireland

We’ve still got a lot of employee record reviews in the pipe—nine hundred and nineteen done, but one thousand four hundred and fifty-five left region-wide. Every honest conversation you have, that’s one more wall between us and the next preventable incident.

Sean Ireland

Let’s talk cost and service. Major focus on cutting overtime—especially in yard and local assignments, but we’re also digging through road train OT and looking for that low-hanging fruit to keep costs down everywhere. Claims? Phenomenal progress—141% improvement on Code 41 claims, which is just, wow. That all started from our regional dinner and development call, and then folks actually put what they learned into practice. Super proud of how everyone ran with it.

Sean Ireland

On the service side, our 32-hour car dwell is better this week than last, but let’s not get complacent—CSD was 95.8% across the region this week; down a bit from 96.9% last week, leaving us at 93.6% year-to-date. We can do better. We’ve gotta keep an eye on not missing consecutive service days for a customer—it only takes a couple misses to lose a lot of hard-earned trust.

Sean Ireland

Okay, now for the recognition piece, because this team’s put in the work and it shouldn’t go uncalled. I want to really spotlight the folks leading those work record reviews and stepping up on engagement and safety in every single zone. Huge thanks to the top leaders from each zone—Marcus Tate, Matthew Webster, Robert Behrens, Jeff Wagaman, Alex Malcom, and Austin Bowers. And on the safety champion front—shout out to Edmund Hughes, Jamie Lipscomb, Bobby King, Dave Robey, Joshua Shaw, and Jimmy Lacy. You’re setting the bar for strong JSBs, ERDs, and Operational testing, and your follow-through is exactly what we need.

Sean Ireland

A couple quick reminders before I wrap up—Customer Hazard Inspection Day is this Wednesday, October 5th. Make sure you’re ready. Regional townhall’s coming up on the 15th; check your email for the invitation and shoot any questions our way ahead of time. And the Nomad side conductors—electronic bids system is rolling out in October. One less paper headache, right? That’s gonna be a real help for crew availability.

Sean Ireland

Alright, that’s a wrap for this week. Let’s keep the focus sharp as we settle into Q4. Appreciate you all and the grit you bring every day. Stay safe out there, and we’ll talk soon.