Posted on 09/15/2022 3:37:27 AM PDT by FarCenter
How do you know he wasn't?
Because the sausage smoker would be all over the news if he was. It’s that obvious.. at least top most of us.
This was a labor issue not a transportation issue.
More inflation fuel who knew.
Workers get pay raise>RRs raise shipping rates>shippers switch to trucks>less RR business>workers laid off and RRs continue to automate.
RRs are in fat city now truckers are taking a beating diesel fuel cost isn’t dropping more trailers are being shipped by rail.
Covid made it worse but it started right after Harrison took over and started cutting jobs.
Talking to a government committee, after the committee received staggering complaints from the ports and businesses, it went something like: my obligation is to my shareholders, not my customers.
The trains were derailing. Breaking down. No crews. Friends that weren’t fired said that CSX had trains sitting on tracks, blocking crossings for days.
(And Harrison’s protégés are still running things.
It is horrible PTS has been a nightmare.
Hunter Harrison did pass away suddenly after screwing up CSX/CPRail. NS bought lines but now CSX is undercutting them and the whole thing is a huge mess.
I mostly deal with sawmills out west or in Canada.
That means the origin railroad is BNSF, UP, CN or CPRS.
CSXT, KCS, NS are all railroads east of the Mississippi.
We deal with them, but the lumber/OSB typically does not originate from there.
The problems we experienced were primarily with the origin rail carriers not supplying empty rail cars to the sawmills.
The excuse was they had mothballed many of the flatcars at the beginning of covid and took them out of service. Then they did not have enough crews(people) to run the trains.
So, they always give priority to commodities like coal, crude oil, grains, necessities, etc.
Lumber is not that important to the railroads. They make more money running at train from the coal mine in WY to the port of Tacoma nonstop made up of all coal hopper cars.
With lumber they pick up five cars from one mill, two from another and one from a third. It like making the milk run.
You’re one of these who likes to keep things going.. cool. Tag your it.
PTS? Is that where they can remotely manipulate the switches? If so, I would imagine there is a high potential for a bad actor to hack that system and send some chlorine cars tumbling down the road.
As for CSX, they started selling off some of their assets before Harrison showed up and upped that tempo afterward.
He lit the match and combined with the government the whole thing is a mess
Hunter Harrison destroyed one of, if not both, of the Canadian railroads doing exactly what you’re talking about. Mothballing or selling cars or other equipment. If you don’t own it, you don’t have to fix it.
And firing as many as possible til the place is barely functioning.
And then reverting back to the tried and true Wall St mantra….you do t like the work/hours/schedule, we’ll find someone that does. Problem is, there running out of people to find.
And what’s was always odd about the Canadian companies, especially out west, they ran through the forest, as fast as they could. Only slowing down hm they hit a populated area. Not like the east coast companies here that operate in population centers.
Either way, the industry is screwed and union contracts aren’t fixing it.
PTS is Positive Train Scheduling.. it was the “invention” of Hunter Harrison and it has basically screwed up the efficiency of the Class 1s. Everyone is trying to make it work, if you watch some of the Virtual Railfan Cams you will see 2-2 1/2 mile long trains with 2-3 locomotives as DPUs (dispersed power units) and they are ripe for derailment.
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