Methodology

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Updates to Performance Measures

CSX Transportation is committed to measuring the right things, the right way, to ensure we're focusing on the right areas of our business to drive service improvements and deliver service excellence.

We have changed the way we calculate several key performance measures to maximize their usefulness to driving performance improvement.

Below is a summary of methodology updates.

Measure	Prior Methodology	Updated Methodology	Reason for Change
Train Velocity	Line of Road miles per hour	Total miles traveled per hour, includes intermediate dwell	To support dramatic improvement in asset cycling.
Cars On Line	All of the cars that Railinc determined was on CSX last. Definition from Railinc: Last railroad that reported an event on a car will have that car in its online count.	CSX will measure cars on line by cars that Railinc determined were on CSX, excluding cars stored, under repair, sold, and private cars ex online inventory.	More accurate measurement of active cars on line
Car Dwell	Length of time (hours) that a departing car spends from arrival at a yard/terminal until departure from that yard/terminal. Excludes cars that arrive and depart a yard/terminal on the same train ID.	Length of time (hours) that a departing car spends from arrival at a yard/terminal until departure from that yard/terminal. Includes cars that arrive and depart a yard/terminal on the same road train.	To support dramatic improvement in asset cycling.

*Please note that CSX’s new metrics differ from data reported by other U.S. railroads, and are not directly comparable. CSX will continue its requirement to report EP 724 data to the Surface Transportation Board in the prescribed methodology on a weekly basis.

The primary changes that we have implemented and reported to the Surface Transportation Board are:

Including intermediate dwell in train velocity. Previously, the definition of train velocity excluded terminal time, which meant that stops in a terminal for crew changes or work events were not counted. Including intermediate dwell in the measure helps us identify additional opportunities to increase network velocity.
Expanding the group of cars counted in terminal dwell. We are now including cars on road trains that stop in a terminal for a crew change or to set off or pick up cars. Again, this change gives us a more-accurate picture of asset utilization and helps us identify opportunities to reduce dwell and improve the overall fluidity of the network.
Including auto racks in the manifest train velocity measurement. Because auto racks are handled in our general merchandise network, with very few exceptions, they will no longer be reported as a separate unit train category.
Reporting cars on line based on active fleet. The measure will exclude cars that are stored, under repair, sold or privately owned and not included in the on-line inventory. This methodology provides a better reflection of asset utilization improvements that have resulted in a large number of cars being stored and sold.

These changes will not always result in a favorable comparison of our numbers to those of other railroads. But our primary responsibility is to our customers, and we believe we can serve them better by defining our metrics in a way that enables us to better identify opportunities for improvement.