Western Railroad Discussion > NRRHOF Interview with UP Merger Team members

I just posted this in the Nostalgia and History Forum and am cross-posting it here in the Western Railroads forum (easily the most active on TO): NRRHOF Interview with UP Merger Team members

The National Railroad Hall of Fame has been conducting interviews with industry veterans "to capture history before it is too late." This is the first one I came across, but it seems to be just one of a series.

Participants include Paul Conley, Michael Hemmer, and John Rebensdorff. The interview is hosted/conducted by Brook Bentz. The video is about 2.5 hours long, and I've only watched a bit of it so far, but it looks to be quite worthwhile.

Please go to the original post in the History Forum for a link the the NRRHOF website and interview. To avoid comments being split up, I ask that all comments be posted in the History Forum.

From the introduction on the NRRHOF page:

"In 1975, Union Pacific conducted a comprehensive study on the future of the railroad industry.  Numerous bankruptcies had rocked the eastern railroads, and UP felt the structure of the industry shifting beneath its feet.  How should UP position itself for future growth and success? How would the railroad survive in this rapidly evolving landscape?

"Known as Project XYZ, the study resulted in a 13 volume-template whose conclusions would drive UP’s merger strategy for decades. Those strategic goals were
implemented by a small  group of employees and outside counsel who remained together for the next 40 years, coalescing into a well-oiled machine with an encyclopedic knowledge of the US railroad network. Together, this team put UP in the forefront as the industry leader on merger review and regulatory processes.
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"Listen as three veterans of Union Pacific’s merger team pull back the curtain on the analysis and strategic planning that drove the mergers and acquisitions of the nation’s largest Class I railroad."