CSX touts efforts to boost service metrics

CSX's trip plan compliance performance reached 82.5% in May, the highest monthly performance since December 2024's level of 82.7%, the Class I announced yesterday.

Trip plan compliance measures CSX’s ability to meet end-to-end commitments for moving customer shipments, making the improvement in May a strong indicator of more reliable and dependable service, CSX officials said in a press release.

Although 2025 began with lower metrics, CSX’s focus on service improvement enabled the company to rebound in May. Over the past year, CSX has faced a range of challenges that affected service metrics. Infrastructure projects, including a rebuild of the Blue Ridge Subdivision following the devastation of Hurricane Helene and work on the Howard Street Tunnel reconstruction in Baltimore, temporarily slowed network operations.

Compounding these issues were ongoing weather disruptions, company officials said.

To address these obstacles and bolster network performance, CSX implemented several targeted initiatives in recent months, including:

• reintroducing 45 locomotives from storage and commissioning 20 additional rebuilds in April;
• revising engineering curfew schedules to align with natural train windows, which minimized the impact of maintenance work on daily operations and improved overall service flow;
 • optimizing car fleets by removing 800 cars from maintenance-of-way service and placing another 1,200 cars, primarily hoppers and intermodal equipment, into storage;
• establishing temporary transfers at 13 locations and consolidating extra boards at eight sites to optimize crew utilization; and
• pre-blocking traffic and increasing interchange frequency with short lines to ensure better synchronization and efficiency across the CSX network.