February 10, 2026 - A partnership between Norfolk Southern and Warrior Met Coal is well underway and a major note of progress has been reached.

Norfolk Southern, which is slated to be acquired by Union Pacific in 2027, is now shipping coal from Warrior Met Coal’s Blue Creek mines to Mobile.

The move is part of a project that includes capacity improvements, customer-specific projects, yard upgrades and grade crossing improvements in various locations. The project was first posted in 2024 announcing plans to invest more than $200 million to grow capacity on the 3B Corridor, a major rail line that connects Central and North Alabama to the Port of Mobile, according to a release from the company.

The 3B Corridor is used by customers in the agriculture, automotive, chemicals, forestry and steel industries.

“We're proud to be partners with Warrior Met Coal in servicing their new Blue Creek facility in Alabama. Back in 2024, we noted that the mine was in development, and we're equally proud now to have attended the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this month," Ed Elkins, chief commercial officer with Norfolk Southern, said during company’s Jan. 29 earnings call.

Elkins called the metallurgical coal market “thinly-traded.”

“There's a lot of weakness both on the domestic side for met coal and frankly, on the global side,” he said. “We're ready to handle it. And as we talked about with Warrior, we have a fantastic new coal mine that's now pumping out coal for the global markets, and that's exciting. As those markets recover, we're going to be in a really good place.”

Elkins also said he expects the market to recover after the first half of this year.

“As the mining operations, the belts and the rail load out are now fully operational, we are pleased to be ramping up rail service and delivering high-quality metallurgical coal to markets around the world," he said. "As always, we want to thank all of our customers for their continued partnership and their business. The entire NS team is aligned around delivering the service that our customers need every day, building trust as a vital partner in their supply chains.”