Eastern Railroad Discussion > .

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/17 18:46 by darkcloud.

I read where right now he is done streamlining Florida (my term ,not his)with Miss Sanborn's help, and that he's looking at or towards New Orleans traffic improvements, like he also said he "only has 4 years to do it"

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

One thing about selling the yards. Once they are gone they are gone.

dstill Wrote:
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> One thing about selling the yards. Once they are
> gone they are gone.

Kinda like a house, a horse, a car, whatever.

It's not economically sound to be a hoarder. If you don't need it get rid of it.

darkcloud Wrote:
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> http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/04/20-cs
> x-ehh-story
>
> May require a subscription to read, but basically
> he said that he expects:
>
> No major line sales this year, instead concentrate
> on improving the current network.
>
> No CSX merger in the next four years of his
> contract.
>
> Other than in a few instances, he doesn't see the
> value of going to one-man crews and thinks 2 in
> the cab is safer and more efficient.
>
> May pull out of national labor negotiations and
> push for an hourly agreement for T&E (which led to
> a big average pay increase for T&E at CN and CP.)
> Hourly agreement would guarantee a job to all T&E
> employees at time of signing. Has currently
> implemented a hiring freeze.
>
> Convert many, but not all, humps into flat
> switching (which is good for engineers, since that
> will add more jobs with scheduled start times and
> days off. Engineers get back some of their
> seniority lost to RCO's.)
>
> Reducing operating divisions and related staff
> from 9 to perhaps 2.
>
> Consolidate some dispatching offices (does not
> read like that means shrinking down to just
> Jacksonville.)
>
> Will continue to invest in longer sidings,
> especially in the Chicago-Florida corridor.
>
> Gave an example of Atlanta for how they might be
> able to consolidate facilities and sell off excess
> high value land. Said there were 4 major yards in
> Atlanta but perhaps that could be shifted to one
> 'super yard'. (Which would fit with the rumor
> that much of Tilford, Howell, and Hulsey yards may
> be sold if they expand Fairburn intermodal and
> adding mixed freight yard. There's room to extend
> Fairburn west behind some warehouses to create a
> 3+ mile yard, and even room to create wyes at both
> ends. Perhaps a wye at Union City by the jail.
> Land is cheaper in Fairburn, while Hulsey,
> Tilford, and Howell are next to downtown or
> between several major employment centers with
> dense, high dollar redevelopment springing up next
> to them. Because of the grades, sharp curves,
> diamond in a dip, the congested crossing of the
> NS, and Howell being stub ended, it and Tilford
> have their problems. So I can see how moving to a
> new Fairburn would be more efficient, and speed up
> transit times in Atlanta. Another rumor is that
> Fairburn may add a N. Baltimore type intermodal
> sorting component. CSX has confirmed that the
> Rocky Mount sorting facility will be built, and
> Fairburn would serve that function for the
> Midwest-Southeast corridors. But all are just
> rumors, for now.)
>
> Wants to substantially increase average train
> velocity, reduce handling and transit times, which
> would require fewer cars and allow the storing of
> less reliable/fuel efficient locomotives. Same
> for unit train cycles. (Reducing locomotive
> breakdowns reduces delays. It was ridiculous how
> often we'd be given 'fixed' power straight out of
> the shops, only to have them fail just miles down
> the road or even in the yard.)
>
>
> > Harrison was asked whether CSX would aim to
> drop some of its less-profitable merchandise
> traffic, like CP did during his tenure in
> Calgary.
>
> “No, we’re not looking at demarketing,” he
> says. “We’re looking at marketing.” <
>
> Not mentioned in this article but elsewhere is
> talk that CSX will push harder on day of the week
> pricing, to try to more evenly spread out traffic
> over the week.
>
>
> Of course talk is cheap, maybe he is just saying
> what labor wants to hear while trying to speed up
> agreement on an hourly contract. Same for the
> other topics. Could always do a merger or sell
> some lines and claim "Circumstances changed." But
> he's already cut a lot of delays and costs simply
> be overruling the lawyers and implementing more
> common sense rules. So right now a lot of the
> doom and gloom armchair experts look to have been
> way wrong on many of their 'predictions'.

darkcloud....it's my opinion that it may be too soon to dismiss the doom and gloom of the "armchair experts" predictions. I admit I have not been following this topic faithfully so I do not know in total what those predictions were. Maybe if we had a better idea when Harrison started his cutting and the rate of that cutting as time progressed on his other railroads we could come to some sort of idea what could happen on CSX. Do we know what Harrison was telling crews on those other railroads and what, in reality, was happening at this point of his tenure? Harrison's reputation precedes him and I do not see any reason why he would change his stripes just because he now works for CSX.

I'd be interested in a ballpark count of how many people, broken down by management and labor, who have to date under Harrison's time here have lost their livelihood.

I'll freely admit I do not like EHH or others in big positions from the same mold, but I do agree on several points:

-Keep two man crews on almost all trains....if a RR can't make money with two folks then hang up the shingle. Most Regionals and short lines can with two people.
-Division and dispatcher consolidation would occur even under the old management, they were already talking it
-Longer sidings Chgo to FL was well recognized by previous Ward management
-Atlanta and other terminal consolidations inevitable if that were the case and I'm no expert in that area.
-Train consolidations here have reduced tiny intermodals and unit trains to the extent that higher revenue carload trains can actually make schedule
-Some former humps closed may be not so bad, since they had 12, but busy yards need humps. Hamlet has more room to expand than any other CSX hump; needs access from the north, but is slated to be de-humped. (Don't suggest that to a camel).
-Evidence here of a decline in track maintenance...I do not like.

Good summary and discussion.

Posted from Android

Yes, great discussion and points made. I'm curious, is CSX still running on an eight day week? Did or does it actually accomplish anything or is it a boondoggle like Daylight Savings Time?
Daylight Savings Time upsets my sleep habits and drives my appetite crazy twice a year for my over 70 trips around the sun, what has the 8 day schedule done at CSX?
Gonut

Gonut1, not sure what you mean about 8 day schedule for CSX freight trains. I think you are talking about CSX's 28 hour scheduled freight train manifest schedule. it was not in effect here, and I cannot comment about other areas where it was. But I do not feel it had a major impact on service, was short lived, and now will probably not survive. As far as Daylight Savings time is concerned, I'm sorry you are upset. I've been around the sun close to 73 years, about the same as the leader of CSX and the country; and I guess they have adjusted to it. Sleep and eating habits as well. DST was enacted for the benefit of commercial producers, who are probably now much younger than us, and we should give them the benefit of being able to do more work in daylight than darkness.

One other thing EHH mentioned in report that Darkcloud did not mention is that upward of 25,000 railcars will go to scrap, be sold, or parked, begining immediatly.  That equates to roughly 1/3 of the entire CSXT car fleet.  Initial marshalling locations will be Russell, Queensgate, and Avon who will build into solod trains for storage on Louisville and Great Lakes divisions, primarily in Indiana and Illinois.
 

It will be interesting to see how Railroaders react to an offer of hourly rate and schedules.

Some people will love it, some people will hate it.

Posted from Android

scraphauler Wrote:
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> One other thing EHH mentioned in report that
> Darkcloud did not mention is that upward of 25,000
> railcars will go to scrap, be sold, or parked,
> begining immediatly.  That equates to roughly 1/3
> of the entire CSXT car fleet.  Initial
> marshalling locations will be Russell, Queensgate,
> and Avon who will build into solod trains for
> storage on Louisville and Great Lakes divisions,
> primarily in Indiana and Illinois.
>  

Two auto-rack trains were placed into storage on the former NYC between Terre Haute, IN and Paris, IL last week.

Greyhounds Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dstill Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > One thing about selling the yards. Once they
> are
> > gone they are gone.
>
> Kinda like a house, a horse, a car, whatever.
>
> It's not economically sound to be a hoarder. If
> you don't need it get rid of it.


Some liquidated assets are fairly easy to replace. Potentially key pieces of real estate are not. If I were calling the shots, I would at least wait until I had the entire network overhauled and see what worked an what didn't. As was mentioned, management has been trying to close Stanley Yard forever, and it has never worked. I wouldn't tear up one stick of track until I was sure I could do without it. I also remember a story about Chrysler in the early 80's. Desperate for cash, they sold prime real estate locations in major cities reserved for future dealerships. When the company recovered, they were at a real disadvantage in building new dealerships in growing market areas compared to their competitors. Remember, CSX is NOT destitute, it is a profit making company. No reason to make a rash decisions that can't easily be undone. Of course, if your motive is "profit today, the hell with tomorrow, let somebody else deal with THAT", then I guess it all makes sense.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/17 10:57 by junctiontower.

I wonder how NIMBYs in Fairburn would react to expansion of CSX there. Unlike folks in Rocky Mount where the local economy is on life support, folks in Fairburn might not be persuaded by new jobs. Several years ago NS spoke of relocating its yard in Raleigh (another real estate gold mine) to a small town on the outskirts. NIMBYs killed that one quickly.