The Virginian-Pilot, July 12, 1998
Conrail Takeover Complicates Computer Issues for Railroad
"From a distance it looks like a rhinoceros out on the veldt," said [Wick] Moorman, vice president of information technology for the Norfolk-based railroad. "The rhinoceros is the information technology system itself and all your software. It's a great big issue, but it's also relatively easy to fix."
But even if it fixes its own rhino and swats all the flies, Norfolk Southern might not be out of the woods. With the Conrail takeover, its rail network will grow by half to serve nearly every major market east of the Mississippi River.
Norfolk Southern began its Year 2000 remediation program in 1995 and has spent more than $10 million reprogramming software and its mainframe computers. Moorman's staff combed about 18,000 programs and 20 million lines of code, and the systems still need to be tested. That's Moorman's rhino.
The Virginian-Pilot, May 17, 1999
Railroad Used Low-Technology Methods, Too
One of the keys to success in the systems integration effort in Norfolk Southern's takeover of its share of Conrail was decidedly low-tech.
It gathered a team of IT people who'd been through the 1982 merger of Southern Railway and the Norfolk & Western Railway that created Norfolk Southern, said Charles W. "Wick" Moorman, Norfolk Southern's vice president-information technology.
That group's most important decision was to focus on using Norfolk Southern's existing systems and not do an extensive analysis of whether Conrail may have better systems, Moorman said. That would have taken too long.
Hattiesburg American, October 13, 2004
Moorman Rides Rails to Success
As a youngster growing up in Hattiesburg, Charles W. "Wick" Moorman used to watch the trains that rumbled and screeched through the city's railyard each day.
"For whatever reason I was always one of these kids growing up who really liked trains," Moorman said. "I would go down to the Southern Railway station at the time and watch the trains go by and chat with the people."
His love of the railroad turned into a 34-year career in the industry. And in early October, Moorman, 52, was named the new president of Norfolk Southern Corp., the nation's fourth- largest railroad operator. Moorman is the number two official at Norfolk Southern; David Goode is chairman and chief executive officer. The Norfolk, Va.-based railroad posted $6.5 billion in operating revenue in 2003.
Norfolk Southern has more than 21,000 miles of railroad track through 22 states and Canada - including train tracks through Hattiesburg near where Moorman once stood as a child.
Though he and his family have long since moved away, Moorman still has fond memories of growing up in Hattiesburg and credits the city as having a positive effect on his adult life.
"Hattiesburg, when I grew up there, was a great place to grow up," he said. "There were just a lot of good people."
The son of late University of Southern Mississippi English professor Charles Moorman, Wick Moorman graduated from Hattiesburg High School in 1970.
As an 18-year-old at Georgia Tech University, Moorman took a part-time job with the railroad and then worked his way up through the company's training program. He later graduated from the Harvard Business School.
With the exception of a two-year hiatus away from the company, Moorman has worked at Norfolk Southern his entire professional life.
"We have a great company," Moorman said. "We've been blessed over a long number of years with good management talent. Right now my overwhelming feeling is I am very fortunate to have been elected president."
His promotion from senior vice president of corporate planning and services to president comes during one of the railroad industry's busiest and most challenging times.
Currently most railroads are running at or near capacity, bolstered by more products coming to the U.S. from overseas and greater congestion on the nation's highways that is forcing transportation to railways.
"What the railroads are doing is trying to maximize the capacity of their existing infrastructure to make the most out of what they've got," said Bill Vantuono, editor of Railway Age magazine, the railroad industry's oldest publication.
The railroads need to build more track and upgrade their equipment. But operating a railroad is an expensive proposition, industry observers say.
One mile of track costs an estimated $1 million, a new locomotive about $2 million and new freight cars cost between $50,000 and $100,000, according to Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads.
Despite the flurry in business, railroads are not earning back the return that it takes to operate them, White said.
"We have not yet achieved the cost of capital," he said. "We have to be able to convince Wall Street that we can earn competitive investments before they can make investments in the railroads."
Nevertheless, Moorman said he believes railroad traffic will continue to increase in the future. But the challenge is restraining spending on the traffic while paying to sustain the railroad's operation, he said.
Norfolk Southern operates 211 miles of track in Mississippi. Grand Trunk Corp. operates the most with 843 miles of track.
Richton resident Mitzi Geiger White, 51, graduated high school with Wick Moorman whom she remembered affectionately as "Wicky."
That he would grow up to be the president of Norfolk Southern didn't surprise her.
"He was the smartest boy in our class," she said. "You would want him sitting by you in class."
It's been years since Moorman has had an extended stay in Hattiesburg, passing through the city two or three times during the past five years on inspection trains.
But Hattiesburg will always be the place where he got his start.
"I still have a lot of affection for Hattiesburg and the people there," Moorman said.
