A hedge fund group and major CSX stockholder is pressuring the railroad to merge with another Class I — either BNSF Railway or CPKC — in response to Union Pacific’s proposed takeover of Norfolk Southern. If CSX does not merge, the hedge fund believes its board of directors should promptly fire “failed” CEO Joe Hinrichs.
Ancora Holdings Group publicly released its letter to the CSX board of directors on August 6, after stating that the railroad had ignored the letter and never acknowledged its receipt. In the letter, Ancora’s officials criticized Hinrichs and claimed that he was only interested in “bolstering employee engagement, making use of the Company’s private planes and manicuring his social media footprint.” Ancora noted that since Hinrichs arrived in 2022, CSX has gone from “first to worst” with an operating ratio that has increased from 58 percent to 67 percent.
“We are hard-pressed to find any real accomplishments tied to Mr. Hinrichs,” Ancora officials wrote. “His time at CSX is best encapsulated by this anecdote: on the very day Jim Vena and Mark George were announcing the largest merger in industry history, Mr. Hinrichs was out promoting his involvement with the Company’s internship program on his tidily managed LinkedIn profile.”
Ancora is no stranger to trying to force change at Class I railroads. Just last year, it initiated a proxy fight against former NS CEO Alan Shaw. That effort ultimately failed (Shaw later resigned after it was revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with an employee).
The hedge fund group said it believed CSX should immediately hire a bank to explore two merger options: BNSF or CPKC. Ancora believed that BNSF, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, could make an all-cash offer. Since UP started eyeing NS, rumors have circulated that BNSF was doing the same to CSX. But Warren Buffett, owner of BNSF, has dismissed those rumors, and sources close to the railroad say that executives have been telling employees they are focused on their own operations, not a merger. However, industry observers have said BNSF might be forced to make a move on CSX to prevent being blocked out of transcontinental traffic patterns by a combined UP-NS.
According to Berkshire Hathaway’s financial reports, the company held $347.68 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of March 2025, much of it from selling more than $100 billion of Apple stock during 2024. This gives Berkshire an advantage because it could potentially make a purchase of either CSX or NS without needing to involve investment bankers. For comparison, UP had approximately $1.41 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 2025 and is paying for its $85 billion NS deal mostly with stock equity, along with additional debt.
The other merger option is CPKC, Ancora suggested, although it recognized that having a Canadian company buy an American one might be frowned upon by the federal government. To bypass that, Ancora proposed a “reverse” merger where CSX takes over CPKC but retains the leadership of CPKC CEO Keith Creel.
Many in CSX are especially concerned that Jamie Boychuk is serving as an advisor to Ancora. Boychuk started his career at CSX as AVP of Transportation in April 2017 during E. Hunter Harrison’s leadership, and by October 2019, he had become the Executive Vice President of Operations. His management style and culture reportedly conflicted with many in the leadership ranks, leading to his unexpected departure from CSX in August 2023. Ancora tried to appoint him to the top operations role at Norfolk Southern but was unsuccessful. In the letter released on August 6, Ancora called him a “railroad operations superstar” (although they misspelled his name in the letter).
Ancora concluded its letter by stating that they would take action if the board of directors did not.
“We hope that you will take control of this situation and promptly disclose that CSX is working to identify the best merger partner,” the letter concluded. “If a deal cannot be struck, we assume it will not take us running a proxy contest to ensure a qualified operator, like Mr. Boychuck or someone with similar credentials, replaces Mr. Hinrichs.”
—Justin Franz and Scott Lindsey