Union Pacific Expects Weaker 2nd Quarter

The Union Pacific Corp. freight logjam that has hurt the railroad’s profit, driven away customers and brought on government oversight is abating, but not fast enough to keep the railroad’s second-quarter earnings from declining, Chairman Richard Davidson said. “We clearly will be down from last year,” when the company had a second-quarter profit of $243 million, or 98 cents a share, Davidson said. The 36,000-mile railroad, the largest in the U.S., is improving its operations every day, he said, but he wouldn’t predict when operations will return to normal. “There is no gridlock in Texas. The congestion is pretty much gone from the railroad,” he said. The rail traffic jam, one of the worst in U.S. history, began last year as Union Pacific moved to absorb the Southern Pacific Railroad, which it acquired in 1996 for $5.4 billion.