AICPA - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Basic earnings per share -net income divided by the average number of shares outstanding for the period.

Capitalized costs - expenditures that have future benefit and thus are recorded as assets.

Car utilization - ways to measure rail car productivity. Among the measures are how much freight a car hauled and how many trips it made in a specified period of time.

Carload - a shipment of not less than five tons of one commodity.

Class I railroad - a railroad having operating revenues of more than $259.4 million annually.

Classification - the process by which cars are grouped according to their destinations and made ready for proper train movement.

Clearance - refers to the capability of a rail corridor to handle equipment of excessive height or width.

Connecting carrier - a railroad with a physical connection with another.

Container - a large, weatherproof box designed for shipping freight in bulk by rail, truck or steamship.

Cycle time - the length of time consumed by a freight car from one loading to the next.

Debt-to-total-capitalization ratio - the percentage of total capital that is debt. Total capital is the combination of long-term debt, short-term debt, current maturities of long-term debt and stockholders' equity.

Diluted earnings per share - earnings per share that reflect the potentially dilutive effect of additional shares that could become outstanding, principally as a result of stock options.

Double track - parallel sets of main line tracks, typically found in areas with high densities of traffic.

Double-stack containers - containers that can be stacked one atop another on a flatcar.

EPA - Environmental Protection Agency.

ESOP - Employee Stock Ownership Plan.

Gross ton-mile - the movement of the combined weight of cars and their contents a distance of one mile.

Haulage rights - rights obtained by one railroad to have its cars or trains operated by another railroad over that railroad's tracks, using the other's crews and usually its locomotives.

Intermodal service - freight moving via at least two different modes of transport. Intermodal service generally involves the shipment of containers and trailers by rail, truck, barge or ship.

ISO 9002 - a globally recognized quality standard established by the International Organization for Standardization in Geneva, Switzerland, and adopted by more than 90 countries.

Just-in-time - a manufacturing strategy whereby parts are produced or delivered only as needed.

Line capacity - the maximum number of trains that can operate safely and reliably over a given segment of track during a given period of time.

Line-haul service - the movement over the tracks of a carrier from one city to another, not including the switching service.

Main line - primary rail line over which trains operate between terminals. It excludes sidings and yard and industry tracks.

Multilevel car - a long flatcar designed with one or more deck levels in addition to the car's main deck; used to haul new automobiles and trucks.

Net ton-mile - the movement of a ton of freight one mile.

Operating ratio - the percentage of revenues that goes into operating the railroad. It is calculated by dividing railway operating expenses by railway operating revenues.

Passing sidings - tracks adjacent to main-line or secondary tracks for meeting or passing trains.

Regional railroad - a non-Class I, line-haul freight railroad that operates at least 350 miles of road and/or has operating revenues of at least $40 million.

Return on equity - net income divided by average stockholders' equity.

Revenue ton-mile - the movement of a ton of freight one mile for revenue.

SEC - Securities and Exchange Commission.

Short line railroad - any freight railroad that cannot be classified as a Class I or regional railroad.

Single-line service - service by a single railroad between two locations.

Surface Transportation Board (STB) - a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates interstate surface transportation, including railroads, within the United States.

Terminal - a railroad facility used for handling freight and the receiving, classifying, assembling and dispatching of trains.

Through freight train - an express freight train between major terminals. Total return to stockholders - stock-price change plus reinvested dividends expressed as a percentage of the purchase price of the stock.

Trackage rights - rights obtained by one railroad to operate its trains over the tracks of another railroad.

Unit train - a freight train that moves carloads of a single product between two points. By unloading on arrival and returning promptly for another load, such trains cut costs because they eliminate intermediate stops in yards and reduce cycle times.

Yard - a system of tracks branching from a common track. Yards are used for switching, classifying and making up trains, and storing cars.