Western Railroad Discussion > PSR in the Flesh

This is the MDYNL 6 (Dayton,TX to Little Rock, AR) with a 2/2/1 power consist and 127 loads/69 empties at Westfield,TX
yesterday afternoon. If you stick around to the end of the video, you'll be rewarded with an FXE SD70ACe pushing on the rear.

What would have been 2 trains not that long ago is now just another PSR *success story* for UP executives. It's depressing
that 8,000 employess had to be sacriced on the altar of Mammon but that's how we roll these days in the USA. Sadder
yet are the folks that excuse the "More $$$ for me, sucks to be you" sociopathy that passes for 21st Century capitalism
in our country.

 

Robert Pierce
Sugar Land, TX
SWRails.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/20 22:23 by TexBob.

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Totally agree with what u say.

TexBob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is the MDYNL 6 (Dayton,TX to Little Rock, AR)
> with a 2/2/1 power consist and 127 loads/69
> empties at Westfield,TX
> yesterday afternoon. If you stick around to the
> end of the video, you'll be rewarded with an FXE
> SD70ACe pushing on the rear.
>
> What would have been 2 trains not that long ago is
> now just another PSR *success story* for UP
> executives. It's depressing
> that 8,000 employess had to be sacriced on the
> altar of Mammon but that's how we roll these days
> in the USA. Sadder
> yet are the folks that excuse the "More $$$ for
> me, sucks to be you" sociopathy that passes for
> 21st Century capitalism
> in our country.


 Thanks for sharing the video. Very long train for sure. Chicago Great Western Railroad back in the 1960's was known for running 200 car freights with 3-4 'F' units. Nothing new about really long trains. More common now though. Far as greed and capitalism is concerned, that has been going on since this country was "conceived". Slavery is a very good example of "greed" at other people's expense.

SantaFeRuss

Well, I suppose we could have kept the cabooses and 5 man crews and 60 car trains, and lost all the business to the trucks.  Competition is as real as the locks on Fort Knox, boys, and the failure to control costs will cdost everyone their railroad jobs.

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

Norm; if UP were using their theoretical psr achieved lower cost structure to actually try and grow volumes, it would be a more defensible business practice.

Instead, UP continues saying they need more volume to achieve a 55 OR then does everything in their power to turn away volume.

Businesses that wish to be successful and provide steady returns to their owners must continue to grow their customer base if they wish to survive.

Posted from iPhone

aronco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, I suppose we could have kept the cabooses
> and 5 man crews and 60 car trains, and lost all
> the business to the trucks.  Competition is as
> real as the locks on Fort Knox, boys, and the
> failure to control costs will cdost everyone their
> railroad jobs.
>
> Norm

A railroad serious about competing against trucks wouldn't spend $billions (not millions) per year buying back their own stocks.

A railroad serious about keeping railroad jobs wouldn't raise dividends 6 times in 4 years. Ford Motor Company cancelled their dividends until further notice to survive the COVID economy. I don't see the railroads (epsecially UP, the topic of this thread) doing that?

A railroad serious about efficiency wouldn't fib crew starts to make the numbers good, for example sending a crew from one subdivision to another to patch another train, delaying at least 2 trains for hours in the process.

I don't think we are living in a pre-Staggers Act world of railroading decline. We are dealing with a different animal here.

What gets me is they decline certain types of traffic because there is "not enough profit in it".  That stance admits they are turning down traffic that would add some profit to the company.

Hey folks, feed the so-called share holders by any means nessasary.  Cchan006 hit it right on the nail head. Greed folks greed. Cooking the books is THE way. Make all the numbers look good for the share holders. Screw the customers. Most share holders have no clue what a railroad is about or should be about and don't care. Capitalism in full effect. And these idiots that are supposed to be "experts" regarding the economy are only focused on Wall street, not Main street. Not the right way to measure the economy, but that's a whole different story.

SantaFeRuss

I suggest you all buy a business like my wife and I did back in the 70s and
are faced with meeting a payroll every two weeks along with all the other bills
and busting your butts selling your product so you can meet all those
obligations.
By the way, it's the same for any business regardless of size.
If you do not control costs you will not have any employees. Period!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

MojaveBill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I suggest you all buy a business like my wife and
> I did back in the 70s and
> are faced with meeting a payroll every two weeks
> along with all the other bills
> and busting your butts selling your product so you
> can meet all those
> obligations.
> By the way, it's the same for any business
> regardless of size.
> If you do not control costs you will not have any
> employees. Period!

Go talk to the business owners trying to survive the COVID politics. I have. 

Some have chosen to peromanently close, but those who are hanging on are making far less margins, in the hopes that when things return to normal, they don't have to deal with the costs and overhead of starting from scratch.

UP is unwilling to sacrifice their margins to think the long game, like the small business owners (which you are righffully praising) who have to make the tough decisions to survive or die. It helps that they don't have lazy idiots (Wall St.) telling them what to do.

So if UP wants to scrap the railroad and start from scratch, go right ahead.

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What gets me is they decline certain types of
> traffic because there is "not enough profit in
> it".  That stance admits they are turning down
> traffic that would add some profit to the company.

Yes, why carry freight basically for no profit?   That's irresponsible. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/20 15:49 by memphisfreight.

Gone are the days when railroads chased business just to have it. SP is a perfect example post Staggers. They bid on and won contracts are margins so low that long term company profit was next to impossible to achieve. SP's OR was ridiculously high during most of the 1980's and 90's.

UP and increasingly BNSF just aren't going to go after business unless its meets their financial criteria.

Allen

Posted from Android

MojaveBill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I suggest you all buy a business like my wife and
> I did back in the 70s and
> are faced with meeting a payroll every two weeks
> along with all the other bills
> and busting your butts selling your product so you
> can meet all those
> obligations.
> By the way, it's the same for any business
> regardless of size.
> If you do not control costs you will not have any
> employees. Period!

i did.  i identified my target market, provided a needed service, and made an effort to take away business from others who provided the same service..........

66

 

The only way for railroads to survive is take wall st out of the equation. Take the company private and make it part employee owned.

Posted from Android

I’d submit there is a helluva difference between “not enough profit” and the “no profit” you note. If UP can make $500-$1000 per car on a new customer, why turn down the business because you think the profit should be $5,000 per car?

UP certainly isn’t strained for capacity on their network right now. So long as the potential business returns a profit, why refuse to handle it?

memphisfreight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> tomstp Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What gets me is they decline certain types of
> > traffic because there is "not enough profit in
> > it".  That stance admits they are turning down
> > traffic that would add some profit to the
> company.
>
> Yes, why carry freight basically for no
> profit?   That's irresponsible. 

Posted from iPhone

memphisfreight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, why carry freight basically for no
> profit?   That's irresponsible. 

Heh. Let's not get trapped in the capitalism vs. anti-capitalism narrative. That's not the real issue, and despite the frustrations expressed in this thread, I figured out (between the lines) that PSR critics are not looking for economic system overhaul.

Trucking industry will win, because the railroads are unwilling to compete with lower margins to get the business. Or if you are more cynical, you might conclude that railroads have given up against trucking, because they can't compete. So they just focus on cost cutting. 

Why can't they compete? Too difficult? Untalented management? Unfair business environment? Or something else?

I'm laughing at the brainless "necessity of cost cutting" in this thread here, because about a decade ago, during the Great Recession, many of my friends were sent by their bosses to seminars on how to survive recessions. It was a good seminar, because the companies that survived applied certain principles discussed in that seminar. Those that just focused on cost cutting went out of business, and in the tech industry, things (good AND bad) happen much faster than the railroads.

so, why won't railroads attempt to regain ALL of the business that switched from rail to trucking in the last 30 yrs? 

they would have to hire more crews (t,e,&y, m.o.w., etc.).

even after hiring more crews, i think they could  still be profitable.............

66

Juniata Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> UP certainly isn’t strained for capacity on
> their network right now. So long as the potential
> business returns a profit, why refuse to handle
> it?

A little off topic, but the Los Angeles Division might be experimenting with cost effectiveness rather than just cost cutting, based on my observations along Beaumont Hill on Labor Day.

When LA Division started to use manned helpers regularly about 2 years ago, they focused on intermodal to keep the speed. Last weekend, they seem to focus on the heavier manifest trains. Most stackers now run with mid-train DPUs, no rear DPU, usually no helper needed.

I've heard from retired railheads that SP liked to cut in helper units (manned or not) about 2/3 in, which is where the intermodal DPUs were located.

Manned helpers. DPU 2/3 in. Maybe SP figured out the cost effective formula way back when? Anyway, I counted 3 manned helper crews on duty, which is COST. Shock!

MojaveBill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I suggest you all buy a business like my wife and
> I did back in the 70s and
> are faced with meeting a payroll every two weeks
> along with all the other bills
> and busting your butts selling your product so you
> can meet all those
> obligations.
> By the way, it's the same for any business
> regardless of size.
> If you do not control costs you will not have any
> employees. Period!


Perhaps you have missed ALL the posts over the last couple of years about TODAY'S RRs..??!!

Trust me....you need a STRONG mind and body and an IMMUNITY to BS to survive now.....

Posted from Android

MojaveBill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I suggest you all buy a business like my wife and
> I did back in the 70s and
> are faced with meeting a payroll every two weeks
> along with all the other bills
> and busting your butts selling your product so you
> can meet all those
> obligations.
> By the way, it's the same for any business
> regardless of size.
> If you do not control costs you will not have any
> employees. Period!
----------------------------
I have been self-employed for > 26 years.
I believe the old saw:
"There is only one unforgivable sin in business: running out of cash"
I have felt that in my gut; literally.
...Lorenzo