Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Thank you. Our first question is coming from William Greene of Morgan Stanley.
William Greene - Morgan Stanley
Wick, I'm wondering if we could talk a little bit about some of the investing you're doing. It seems like coal may be facing some longer-term pressures whether we think about the competitiveness of eastern mines or the met coal experts or at some point even a climate bill. And I think most of us would argue that that's one of your more profitable commodities, but you're investing a lot in Intermodal, which by definition is less captive. So how should we think about the return profile going forward? It would seem to me that it will be challenged if that's sort of the secular trend, but how do you think about that?
Wick Moorman
Well, there's no question that the long-term secular trend, if the country is to move away from coal generation will present some issues for not only Norfolk Southern, but all of the rail industry. And for that reason, we and all of the other carriers have been active on Capitol Hill with a lot of other people in terms of expressing our views and our positions on the advantages of coal-fired generation.
Having said that from an investment and a returns profile, we continue to invest in a lot of different areas of our franchise. Don, highlighted the present quarter, which we talk a lot about, because we think that that is a long-term very significant growth opportunity for us, with traffic that we think we can earn a very good return on. But I'll point out that we also are investing in other parts of our network, including the parts of our network that are focused on coal.
A great example of that is the recently announced mid-American quarter venture that we announced with CN, which will give Norfolk Southern great access into the Illinois basin coal fields, which we think will be a long-term player in coal-fired generation in a lot of our service territory. We also continue to invest in facilities that will improve our transportation ability for western coal to reach a lot of our primary utilities, and we have done some investment as well where it made sense, even looking at the opportunity for imported coal.
So as you look at our investment profile, we certainly are continuing to invest in coal. I will personally say that I think that coal has a good future, and that Norfolk Southern will benefit from that.
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