Union Pacific Corp.’s fourth-quarter 2004 profit took a 76 percent nosedive from the year-earlier period due in large part to a nationwide labor shortage and weather-damaged tracks in Southern California and Nevada that severely hampered the company’s ability to move freight.

Net income dropped to $79 million, or 30 cents per diluted share during the fourth quarter, down from $333 million, or $1.28 per diluted share during the year-earlier period, the company said today. Union Pacific, the nation’s largest railroad, also had a $247 million pre-tax charge for asbestos related costs that cut into fourth-quarter profits.

The net income drop came despite sales revenues increasing 8.5 percent to $3.22 billion.

Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific struggled all year with an employment shortage that forced it to turn away large amounts of cargo.

The company is in the midst of a hiring boom that will add thousands of employees to the payroll within the next couple of years.

The quarterly earnings report was released on the same day the company finally re-opened the last two of its four Southern California routes that were closed Jan. 9 after torrential downpours caused major flooding and mudslides.

With those routes from the rail yards east of downtown Los Angeles to Oakland and Salt Lake City (via Las Vegas) are now operational, freight is now being hauled on all five of Union Pacific’s Southern California routes.

But the company does not expect to accept new freight for another four or five days when the backlog of containerized cargo at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach is eliminated.

The fiscal damage from that delay will be seen in its first quarter report, when company officials expect net income to be 25 to 30 cents, half the projected earnings without the weather damage.