THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150605
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
Norfolk Southern Corp. announced a modest increase in its annual spending for capital improvements, which includes $244 million for upgrading rails, cross-ties and other parts of its 20-state rail network.
The Norfolk-based rail holding company also signaled Thursday that it will closely monitor what it spends on equipment next year.
``Business remains strong, yet we will be able to retire 17,000 rail cars by the end of 1996, and we will be buying or modifying cars only where market pricing will permit an acceptable return,'' David R. Goode, Norfolk Southern's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Norfolk Southern has earmarked $708 million for capital improvements in 1996, an increase of 1.9 percent from $695 million budgeted for 1995.
Next year's total includes $193 million for buying locomotives and buying or rebuilding freight cars.
Other major expenditures scheduled for 1996 include $49 million to upgrade the company's communications system and $21 million to improve capacity along Norfolk Southern rail lines in Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The company also said it will spend $21 million to improve rail-yard facilities in the Chicago area, Atlanta and Alabama.
Another $9 million will be put into projects at Norfolk Southern's motor-carrier subsidiary, North American Van Lines Inc.
One project that isn't part of Norfolk Southern's capital-spending plan for 1996 is a coal-storage facility in Isle of Wight County.
Earlier this year, the company received the last of several permits necessary for building the $100 million project. However, it has postponed construction because of weakness in the coal market, said Robin Chapman, a Norfolk Southern spokesman.
The 1,600-acre facility would hold coal destined for Norfolk Southern's Lamberts Point coal-loading terminal on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk. by CNB