“We will be the best margin operating ratio company this year and I don't see any reason for us not to continue that and we will look at ways.”

In context

“words, can you have an industry-leading OR as early as next year? Jim Vena: I think we have an industry leading OR for the last number of quarters including this one. I think we're the last ones to report and I'm pretty safe to say that. Walter, let's back up a little bit. People are in different positions of where and what we started. I remember back in 2019 where I joined, we parked 1,000 plus locomotives closer to 1,500. We adjusted the number of people that took to operate the railroad and those were big changes and we did those already. I think I was here and then I went on sabbatical and now I'm back. And am I done? Absolutely not. But, it's a lot different place to start where I came back 13, 14 months ago, than it was if I would have come, if we were in the same situation as 2019. We will be the best margin operating ratio company this year and I don't see any reason for us not to continue that and we will look at ways. Now inflationary pressure and I said it from the very first call I was on is, it's not going to be an easy one to get over. We are pushing price, but also being cognizant that we only get, the customers have to see value in that. They have to understand that we're giving them a product that allows them to win in the marketplace. And we've done that with the revenue coming in and pricing higher than what inflation is. So what I see is exactly what we laid out in our Investor Day. We see EPS growth high single-digits to low double-digits. We have the opportunity with the cash that we're providing that if we don't come up with another use for that we can buy back $4 billion to $5 billion versus shares. And we are absolutely online to set operating ratio improvement at the Union Pacific. So t”