Union Pacific railroad’s quarterly profit falls 19% as volumes slow and costs remain high

— Union Pacific’s third-quarter profit fell 19% as the railroad hauled fewer shipments and costs remained high, but the average speed of its trains improved 5% as new CEO Jim Vena began to tweak the operations. The railroad’s revenue slipped 10% to $5.9 billion because of the lower volume and the lag between when fuel prices increase and when Union Pacific’s fuel surcharge kicks in. Vena said he still sees room to improve productivity but he won’t be able to make the same kind of drastic changes he made when he was Union Pacific’s chief operations officer in 2019 and 2020 because the railroad is already more efficient than it was back then. Within his first two weeks on the job, Vena met with Union Pacific’s two biggest unions and called the leader of a third one after getting a lukewarm reaction from them after his hiring.