CSX Corporation (NYSE:CSX) is one of the nation's leading transportation companies. CSX's 30,000 employees operate a rail network comprised of more than 21,000 miles of track, 4,100 locomotives, 216,000 freight cars, and nearly 33,000 intermodal units.^[1] The company transports everything from chemicals to automotive parts. Its main divisions are Merchandise, coal , Intermodal (a combination of rail and truck transportation), and Automotive. The company earned $9 billion in revenue and $1.1 billion in net income in 2009.^[2]

Like its counterparts in the railroad industry, CSX is subject to economic cycles. When the economy is doing well, more goods tend to be shipped, and when the economy is doing poorly, fewer goods tend to be shipped. Moreover, the volume of goods being shipped by a particular industry tends to vary directly in proportion to the health of that industry. For instance as housing markets have declined, the demand for the transportation of housing related goods has also decreased. As the price for a barrel of crude oil rises, diesel fuel and trucking becomes much more expensive. Rail prices are much less sensitive to fuel costs, and a massive movement to rail-based transport developed. Volume has exploded the last two quarters for this sector.

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