Norfolk Southern
Q2 2022 Earnings Call
Jul 27, 2022, 8:45 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the Norfolk Southern Corporation second quarter 2022 earnings call. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Luke Nichols, senior director of investor relations. Thank you, Mr.
Nichols, you may now begin.
Luke Nichols -- Senior Director of Investor Relations
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Please note that during today's call, we will make certain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties and may differ materially from actual results. Please refer to our annual and quarterly reports, filed with the SEC, for a full discussion of those risks and uncertainties we view as most important. Our presentation slides are available at nscorp.com in the Investors section along with a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures used today to comparable GAAP measures.
A full transcript and download will be posted after the call. Turning to slide three. It's now my pleasure to introduce Norfolk Southern's president and chief executive officer, Alan Shaw.
Alan Shaw -- President
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Norfolk Southern's second quarter 2022 earnings call. I am joined today by Cindy Sanborn, chief operating officer, Ed Elkins, chief marketing officer, and Mark George, chief financial officer. In the second quarter, we stabilized service levels, expanded our pipeline of conductor trainees and launched the next evolution of our operating plan, TOP|SPG with our signature no surprises approach.
Service is not yet where we want it to be, but I am encouraged by our progress and inspired by the commitment and shared vision of our talented team. I am privileged to spend a lot of time in the field with our hard-working craft employees and operations supervisors. I see firsthand and sincerely appreciate their daily dedication to serving our customers. We are eager to reach an agreement that keeps our people among the highest paid craft workers of any industry and recognizes their essential service to our customers, our company and the U.S.
economy. Moving to slide four. Thanks to the combined efforts of our team. We delivered solid financial performance in the second quarter with record revenue and earnings per share.
Revenue increased 16% as a 20% increase in revenue per unit more than offset a 3% volume decline. Expenses grew by 21% year over year due primarily to higher fuel prices. Operating ratio was up 260 basis points versus last year's quarterly record. Comparisons were adversely impacted by the absence of a large property sale we called out last year, as well as fuel price headwinds.