Union Pacific thrives in Q1

The Class I railway increased net income, revenues and volumes during the quarter from the prior 2017 period.    Union Pacific posted a net income of $1.31 billion on operating revenues of $5.48 billion for the first quarter of 2018, rising 22 percent and 7 percent, respectively, from the first quarter of last year, the company said Thursday.
  The Omaha Neb.-based Class I railway reported diluted earnings per share of $1.68 for the quarter, surpassing the Thompson Reuters estimate of $1.66 per share and the Zacks consensus estimate of $1.65 per share.
   Business volumes for the quarter ticked up 2 percent year-over-year. “Volume increases in energy, industrial and premium more than offset a decline in agricultural products,” the company said.
   When asked about the current state of the trucking market during Thursday’s earnings conference call, Beth Whited, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Union Pacific, said that the railway continues to be very encouraged by what it is seeing in the truck market and the opportunities it provides the company in both pricing and volumes gains.
   She said Union Pacific will continue to feel like it has opportunities in all of its truck competitive markets and where it really sees pressure is in areas such as international intermodal and the coal market.
   Union Pacific also gave an update on where it stands in regard to implementing positive train control (PTC), a wireless communication system that can prevent an accident by overriding a conductor to slow or stop a train.
   The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 required PTC implementation across a significant portion of the nation’s rail system by Dec. 31, 2015, but Congress later extended the deadline to Dec. 31, 2018, with the possibility of an additional two-year extension under certain circumstances.
   During the first quarter of 2018, Union Pacific PTC accomplishments included:
     • Preparing eight additional track segments for PTC operations, bringing the total number of track segments to 176, or 97 percent complete;
     • Educating more than 3,300 additional employees on PTC operations, bringing the total number of employees trained to about 22,690, or 88 percent;
     • And increasing the number of installed PTC route miles by nearly 900, bringing the total number of route miles in PTC operations to 10,899, or 64 percent.