New CSX CEO, Steve Angel, Needs to Learn How to Railroad

In railroading, there are two distinct kinds of new hires.

The ones who succeed are the ones who keep their mouths shut, listen to the old heads, and respect that there’s a reason why things are done the way they’re done.

Then there’s the other guy. The ones who come in thinking they’re the smartest guy in the room, hitting you with the classic, “I know that,” or even “That’s dumb, we should do it this way.” Those are the new guys who wash out quick or get somebody hurt.

Right now, CSX CEO Steve Angel (with a whopping seven months in railroading behind him) is acting like the second kind.

Who Is Steve Angel?

Angel didn’t come up through the ranks. He’s not a railroader. He built his career in boardrooms, not on ballast. And yet from day one, he came in guns hot, changing operations, ignoring the workforce, and now even trying to influence what other railroads do with their business.

That’s not how our industry works.

“There’s a right way to learn this craft, and it starts with listening,” said SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson. “What we’re seeing right now is the opposite of that.”

Instead of focusing on the real issues like safety, customer service, and a workforce with worse morale than any other, Angel has CSX launching public campaigns against the proposed Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger.

You’ve got to love that.

Fix Your Own House

CSX’s own train is in emergency, it’s all over the ground, and its CEO is worried about what the UP and NS are doing?

“CSX has real problems right now,” Ferguson said. “Our members, CSX customers, and the American economy would all be a hell of a lot better off if Mr. Angel focused on his own railroad instead of trying to play politics. If he was anybody else, he’d still be wearing his new hire hi-viz orange hat. It’s probably a good idea for him to focus on the task at hand.”

The reality on the ground at CSX tells a very different story than the one in its press releases.

Federal regulators have already flagged gaps in CSX’s safety culture. Workers are raising concerns at a pace that makes it clear things are not stable. Adding insult to injury, recent operating decisions are making matters worse, not better.

CSX Customers Are Now At Risk

The shutdown of Barr Yard in Chicago, a facility that handled around 1,400 cars a day, has created immediate problems. The plan to shift that work to short lines that can barely handle half that volume instantly led to backups, congestion, and ripple effects spreading across multiple states. The way Angel’s move in this situation is looking right now, it could easily back up traffic out of Chicago in every direction. You know you made a bad call when something you did in Chicago jams up the nation’s supply chain from New York City to Kansas, and even up into Canada.

That’s not innovation. That’s a misread of how a railroad works in real life. It might make sense on whatever AI simulator your “experts” ran it through, but any railroader in the Midwest who was around for a decade or so could tell you this doesn’t work when it goes from the drawing board to the rails. We’ve seen this kind of move fail more than once before.

This time, under Angel’s leadership, it’s already gotten so bad that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) should be looking into how it can help remedy the situation. Something needs to get fixed before we starve out our customers or lose them over this bad call. 

“You don’t make anything better in railroading by tearing out capacity and hoping it works,” Ferguson said. “Progress comes from understanding why that capacity was put there in the first place.”

Why Is CSX Really Fighting the UP–NS Merger?

We all know that arrogance in a new hire ends badly on the rails and in the crew rooms. One of the classic trademarks of new managers hired off the street is that they tend to add a dash of hypocrisy to their arrogance to give it that unique Trainmaster feel.

Don’t worry, Angel is bringing plenty of that to CSX, too.

Angel is publicly positioning CSX as a defender against consolidation in the UP–NS merger fight. But his own career was built around large-scale corporate mergers, including leading the high-profile merger of Praxair and Linde.

He wasn’t hand-picked by ANCORA to run CSX because he opposes large-scale mergers. He was brought in after hedge fund pressure from investors who have been very clear about wanting big moves, including potential mergers.

So which is it, Steve?

Is he against consolidation, or just against the ones that don’t meet the likely conditions for his millions in stock performance bonuses, which are probably in his contract?

“You don’t build a career on mergers and then suddenly act like you’re against them,” Ferguson said. “That’s not principle. That’s playing to his self-serving agenda.”

Intentionally Out of Touch

Meanwhile, Angel hasn’t even taken the time to sit down with the largest union representing his workforce. SMART-TD tried, but the meeting never happened.

That sends a clear message, and not a good one.

“If you won’t even listen to the people who run your railroad every day, you’re not going to understand the problems you’re supposed to fix,” Ferguson said.

And those problems have definitely been growing since he took over in September of 2025.

CSX remains the only Class I railroad without a settled agreement or a tentative deal in place for workers. Service issues are mounting. Industries are getting cut off. Safety concerns are rising. The people doing the work are being ignored, furloughed, and forced to chase work across the country.

That’s not leadership. That’s a failure to engage.

You’re Not in Kansas Anymore

Railroading isn’t like any other industry. You don’t walk in from the outside and start rewriting the playbook. This craft has been built over more than 160 years through experience, trial and error, and lessons learned the hard way.

There are reasons things are done the way they’re done, and those reasons are often written in our blood.

The leaders who succeed in this industry understand that. They listen first. They learn. They earn the respect of the workforce.

Right now, Steve Angel is doing none of those things.

He’s acting like the new guy who thinks he knows better, while the railroad around him, his employees, and customers are feeling the consequences.

“This isn’t complicated,” Ferguson said. “Focus on safety. Respect your workforce. Run a good railroad. That’s how this industry has succeeded for generations.”

CSX doesn’t need a CEO campaigning about another railroad’s merger.

It needs one who understands the job he already has.

“Fix your own house,” Ferguson said. “That’s the job.”