Union Pacific Team, Thank you for continuing to prove what’s possible and demonstrating our Safety, Service and Operational Excellence strategy is working.
Note: In this letter to employees, Jim recaps Union Pacific's first quarter 2025 results.
We achieved record first quarter operating results despite facing unexpected external dynamics thrown at us. We focused on what we can control, and our results (link to press release) prove we have what it takes to look the unexpected in the eye – and deliver.
I was clear in my first letter that we’d run into challenges and that the road ahead wouldn’t be easy. I said I would ask a lot of you, and demand even more of myself. Together, we are proving we have the people, capabilities and tools to win.
Tariffs are top of mind, but I am confident the end result will be success for American companies and our economy. At any given moment, products from Canada, Mexico and hundreds of countries are safely in motion on our network. From beer, grain and fertilizer to autos, steel and lumber, we move the goods Americans use every day. We’ve proven we know how to manage the unexpected with confidence and consistency, which puts us in a strong position.
Safety – We are doing well on our journey to become North America’s safest railroad. Our first quarter employee reportable rates matched our best-ever performance. As we did when we established the Service Performance Index to measure ourselves against historic service delivery, we will begin measuring safety by comparing current year performance against the previous three-year average for a more comprehensive view of our strong progress. Over the past several years, we’ve improved personal injury and derailment rates and are doing more to address root causes.
Service – In the first quarter we continued to see meaningful improvement across nearly all of our metrics. Freight Car Velocity improved 6 percent – a first quarter record. Manifest SPI improved by 6 points and Intermodal SPI was strong. These results show our buffer and improved fluidity are making a big difference for our customers.
Operational Excellence – We are working closely with our customers to deliver the service we sold while helping them explore new paths for growth. We have a pipeline of 200 construction projects and spend $10 million a day on infrastructure investments. I’ll share two stories that are good examples of these investments at work:
- When Englewood Yard was slowing down we transformed its fluidity, and its capability went from processing 1,700 freight cars a day to 3,000. Through technology and system upgrades, we made it faster and more efficient while also strengthening the underlying rail infrastructure – replacing and installing more than eight miles of rail and nearly 23,000 ties.
- At the west end of West Colton, we turned a hump yard into an intermodal facility – and it’s expanding, giving customers seven-days-a-week service and moving their freight faster.
New Customer Growth – Customers are responding to our service and rewarding us with new business. We successfully onboarded the Lower Colorado River Authority, a new coal customer, and we also welcomed Hyundai Steel Corporation to the Union Pacific network – announcing their first-ever U.S. steel mill in Louisiana.
These stories are possible because our strategy is working, we are focusing on the things we can control and we are standing on 160 years of resilience. At the end of this month, we will unveil the Abraham Lincoln commemorative locomotive No. 1616 in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Lincoln’s vision of establishing a transcontinental railroad embodies who we are – an engine of economic innovation for this nation. We exist because he wasn’t afraid to ask, “What’s Possible?”
Thank you again for all you have done for this great company – and for all that we will continue to do together. I look forward to seeing you as I travel our system.
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