Freight railroad operator Norfolk Southern Corp. faces elevated expenses this year associated with a derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. As a result, we believe credit measures will weaken below our expectations for the rating in 2023 but improve in 2024, given the one-time nature of these costs and our expectation for improving demand conditions. Therefore, we affirmed our ratings on Norfolk Southern, including the 'BBB+' issuer credit rating. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the company's financial policy will remain supportive of the current rating, with a reduction in debt-financed share repurchases this year. In the first quarter, the company recognized $387 million in expenses related to the derailment, $332 million of which was noncash. In our base case
