Union Pacific: Long Train Runnin’

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[00:03:01] - [First question] - A general overview of the transportation sector

[00:05:38] - What a Class 1 railway is and what the railway industry looks like

[00:07:40] - Is there cartel-like behavior and collusion between railway companies?

[00:12:24] - What a rail network consists of at the unit and asset level

[00:17:48] - Whether or not consumer railroads are independent from freight railroads 

[00:18:57] - Interchange when goods are transferred from the east coast to the west coast 

[00:20:17] - Who Union Pacific’s customers are, what they move, and their business writ large 

[00:22:51] - Defining intermodal and its implications for railways  

[00:25:35] - The Box; Whether or not all transport volume in 50 years will be intermodal

[00:26:37] - How they determine the rate they charge customers  

[00:28:41] - Ways that geography impacts what is being transported 

[00:31:28] - The income statement and economics of rails through the lens of UNP

[00:36:11] - Improving efficiency and ROI while not having to submit to customers 

[00:40:12] - How different policies affect railway margin profiles 

[00:41:56] - Operating ratios and why they’re the metric most referenced for performance

[00:44:38] - The nature of cyclicality and its driving forces 

[00:48:15] - Thoughts about capital allocation given being high CapEx and their free cash flow

[00:52:27] - How inflation and current events lately positively and negatively affect UNP

[00:54:16] - What would make him nervous as an analyst looking at UNP in the years ahead

[00:56:33] - Talk or plans to electrify and migrate away from fossil fuels 

[00:58:22] - Lessons learned from UNP that could be applied to other industries and investing