Norfolk Southern’s ‘Golden Triangle’ | Why Georgia is Key for Rail

Ed Elkins, EVP & CCO at Norfolk Southern, reveals why Georgia and the strategic ‘Golden Triangle’ are pivotal for rail logistics and supply chain efficiency. Discover how infrastructure investments are shifting freight from highways to rails, driving massive growth and economic strength in the Eastern U.S. Elkins delves into Atlanta’s historical importance as a rail hub, details NS’s extensive network across Georgia, and explains how energy and manufacturing are powering a robust industrial recovery. Tune in for insights into how rail is driving mode conversion and delivering exceptional value for customers and shareholders.

Norfolk Southern’s industrial development pipeline accelerated sharply in the first half of this year, with the number of projects moving into the design-and-construction phase rising roughly 50% compared with the prior year, according to the railroad’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer. The figure, cited by Elkins, signals that capital is moving from blueprint to ground-breaking — a distinction he called critical for gauging real freight demand.

Elkins traced the broader freight inflection to early 2025, when volume began to surge across the national rail network. He pointed to intermodal as a primary driver, noting strong domestic truckload and less-than-truckload conversion, but said even depressed commodity segments were joining the rally. “Let’s talk about center beams where it’s frankly a down lumber market — you know, it’s not a really hot lumber market right now, but there’s a lot of demand,” he said, attributing the conversion to railroads’ cost advantage over highway when truck rates spike. Flatbed spot rates had climbed above $4.30 per mile, a level participants in the interview called a record for tender rejections.

“We’ve had four years of a freight recession that I personally predicted would be over four times,” Elkins said. “There’s a fair amount of people who have been trained now to think that things are just down.”

Georgia sits at the center of what Norfolk Southern calls its “Golden Triangle” — a logistics hub strategy anchored by Chicago, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Atlanta that the railroad says has delivered consistent value since it acquired its portion of Conrail in 1999. The Atlanta node alone includes two major intermodal facilities, two large freight yards, a manifest hump yard in Macon, a container operation serving the Georgia Ports Authority in Garden City near Savannah, and an automobile import-export facility in Brunswick. A new inland port in Gainesville came online this year, which Elkins said Norfolk Southern is “really bullish on.”

On the proposed Norfolk Southern-Union Pacific merger, Elkins said the railroad is “making progress” before the Surface Transportation Board and characterized the case as straightforward: eliminating interchange friction between eastern and western networks would increase train velocity and improve service reliability for shippers moving goods coast to coast. He compared the current interchange requirement to forcing a consumer to hire a second package carrier mid-shipment to complete a cross-country delivery.

Norfolk Southern relocated its headquarters from Norfolk, Virginia, to Atlanta in 2021, situating it across the highway from Georgia Tech. Elkins said that regardless of how the UP merger proceeds, Atlanta will retain a substantial Norfolk Southern presence — particularly in information technology and commercial operations — given its proximity to the world’s busiest airport and a deep regional customer base.

Looking at the macroeconomic backdrop, Elkins said the current industrial expansion most closely resembles 2003 in its character, driven not by federal stimulus but by deregulation and artificial intelligence capital expenditure. He added that U.S. energy dominance — what he called one of the country’s two core economic superpowers alongside agricultural output — is pulling heavy manufacturing and chemical production back to American soil, a dynamic he said is still in early stages but clearly visible in the railroad’s own pipeline data.

• Norfolk Southern’s industrial development projects entering design and construction rose ~50% in the first half of 2025, signaling real capital deployment rather than speculative planning.
• The railroad’s ‘Golden Triangle’ hub strategy — Chicago, Harrisburg, and Atlanta — has underpinned NS intermodal and merchandise growth since the 1999 Conrail acquisition; a new Gainesville, Georgia, inland port came online this year.
• NS’s CCO says the proposed Norfolk Southern-Union Pacific merger is advancing before the STB, arguing a transcontinental network would eliminate interchange friction and boost service reliability for shippers.

This Summary is generated thanks to a transcription of the interview, for the full interview please enjoy the video above.