.His ouster follows two challenging years in the top job as well as simply days after the company's board announced it was examining him for alleged moral lapses.The Atlanta-based railway stated Shaw had an unacceptable consensual relationship with Norfolk Southern's primary legal officer, who was also ended. Norfolk Southern advertised Principal Financial Officer Spot George to become the railroad's next CEO.Shaw was leading Norfolk Southern in February 2023 when among its trains wrecked, blew poisonous chemicals and also ignited in East Palestine, Ohio, the most awful railroad calamity in the final many years. Then, activist client Ancora Holdings tried to take command of the railroad previously this year as well as fire Shaw.He survived congressional hearings and challenging area meetings after the East Palestine derailment, while assuring to create Norfolk Southern the "gold specification for security" in the sector. He additionally dealt with to convince capitalists certainly not to support the majority of Ancora's board nominees. 3 of its nominees did win chairs on the railway's panel, however that had not been good enough to give it control.The derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border urged the nation to re-examine railroad protection as well as led legislators and regulatory authorities to ask for reforms. However those proposals have mainly delayed, and the market has actually created only marginal changes given that the derailment, including putting in even more trackside sensors to detect overheating bearings like the one that created the East Palestine crash.The frustrating economic end results Norfolk Southern delivered after the derailment, combined with questions concerning Shaw's tactic of maintaining even more workers handy throughout a slump, produced the railway enriched for pressure from an investor like Ancora. Norfolk Southern's revenues have actually consistently dragged the other primary railways that more strongly taken on the healthy operating version that has become the business requirement.