ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100056
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
For Norfolk Southern Corp. stockholders, the news couldn't have been much better.
``We set records for net income and earnings per share,'' said David R. Goode, Norfolk Southern's chairman, chief executive and president. ``We improved customer service, surpassed an already exceptional employee safety record, bettered our productivity and asset utilization, and attracted 85 new industries to our lines.''
More than 200 shareholders gathered Thursday in Norfolk.
Goode told them that January's 4-cent dividend increase made Norfolk Southern's 56-cent-per-share quarterly dividend the railroad industry's highest.
On the safety side, Goode all but announced that NS won a record seventh consecutive E.H. Harriman Memorial gold medal for employee safety. The annual award, which goes to the railroad with the best safety record, is to be announced Tuesday.
``Unfortunately, the industry today is under an extraordinary spotlight as a result of a recent group of tragic accidents. ... And, inevitably we're hearing suggestions that someone - the government perhaps - knows better than we how to improve safety,'' Goode said. ``I don't believe that, and I will resist the suggestion that anyone can make us safe but ourselves.''
Goode also told the audience that the railroad has plans to turn around its foundering port subsidiary, Lambert's Point Docks Inc.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB