Western Railroad Discussion > Lance Fritz on CNBC

I was surprised that there was no mention of Lance Fritz's parting comment on CNBC the other day.
He was asked about autonomous applications and his reply was "We are investigating terminal ramp
and locomotive applications", and people don't think he looks up to his buddy Hunter!

Out

Me and my wife had the opportunity to eat lunch with Lance Fritz a couple weeks ago at a UP company meeting in Roseville, he sat next to us at our table and we spent a bit of time talking personal. The encounter was a complete coincidence, but interesting none the less. He mentioned Hunter Harrison a bit, and talked a bit about emulating tactics CSX used to consolidate RR operations. Going completely off of intuition, I think I really liked him and what he had to say, he seemed relatively honest and made me feel proud to be part of this company.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/17 10:39 by Brodiesel710.

Listening to him I get the same impression but from an employee standpoint it's completely obvious that he's
going to do the best for the company. I doubt there will ever be crewless trains but I can see a point where
there is a "rider" in the cab as a backup to the computer. I think there's too much sentiment against crewless
operation for something as dangerous as a train.

Out

Sort of like the FEC which went to an engineer only crew then hired a contract day labor worker literally off the street who's only job was to make sure the engineer stayed awake.

fbe Wrote:
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> Sort of like the FEC which went to an engineer
> only crew then hired a contract day labor worker
> literally off the street who's only job was to
> make sure the engineer stayed awake.

Lol

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sort of like the FEC which went to an engineer
> only crew then hired a contract day labor worker
> literally off the street who's only job was to
> make sure the engineer stayed awake.

Aren't Florida East Coast engineers, conductors, train men, and diesel shop mechanics all represented by UTU / SMART?

Posted from Android

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sort of like the FEC which went to an engineer
> only crew then hired a contract day labor worker
> literally off the street who's only job was to
> make sure the engineer stayed awake.

While not the best scenario, I find this better than only one person in a 100+ car train going 60mph... Kinda like one pilot on your commercial flight???

callum_out Wrote:
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> . . . Lance Fritz's . . . was asked about autonomous applications and his
> reply was "We are investigating terminal ramp and locomotive applications" . . .
> and people don't think he looks up to his buddy Hunter!

Lance Fritz delivered the annual Patterson Lecture at Northwestern University's Transportation Center this year. From his remarks at the time, he seemed to be a technology enthusiast with high hopes for very advanced new machines that would improve operations and safety (and presumably decrease employment into the bargain). He seems to be a very recent convert to the Hunter Harrison school of railroad operations, as he was rather dismissive of "Precision Railroading" when asked about it during the Patterson Lecture Q&A. Perhaps he's now met the man in person at AAR gatherings and been "sold" (or more likely he's been taken to the woodshed by the Wall St. analysts in the meantime for not learning his lessons properly).