Union Pacific Corp UNP

Union Pacific's Intermodal Demand Stabilizing, but Cost Inflation Still a Headwind

Since 2018, all the rails have confronted the push to implement precision scheduled railroading, or PSR, if they hadn’t already. Shareholders have demanded it, motivated by PSR’s initial success at Canadian National and Canadian Pacific. Union Pacific is no exception, launching its own PSR efforts in late 2018. UP’s operating ratio (expenses/revenue) was in a better position than other railroads when its rollout started, but PSR has proved to be the surest path to greater network efficiency and higher incremental margins.