Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS Head Says Service Not Good

http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/3e5706924b99c2e99ef1f023069802e9?s=50&d=identicon&r=GNS Head Concedes Service Not Good Nowby csanders429

 The new president of Norfolk Southern acknowledged at a shippers convention that his railroad isn’t doing a very good job right now of serving them.
“We don’t have a good product right now,” Alan Shaw said in remarks to the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers as reported by Trains magazine on its website.

“That’s unacceptable to me, that’s unacceptable for our employees, and it’s unacceptable to our customers,” Shaw said in Chicago.
Shaw attributed the lackluster service in part to labor shortages and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the steps Shaw said NS is taking to improve service include increased hiring of new workers, offering financial incentives to existing employees in an effort to increase crew availability and having supervisors fill in on some jobs, such as ferrying crews to and from train assignments.

Among the incentives being offered to workers are buying back vacation time and paying retention bonuses. Employees can also earn a bonus by making referrals to the NS training program.

Although he didn’t offer a timeline for how long it will take to improve service, Shaw pledged that NS will get things fixed and denied that the service issues are linked to the precision scheduled railroading operating model that it adopted in 2019.

“I’m not in position to tell you when we’ll get all the pieces in place,” he said. “But we will, fairly soon, be in a position to tell you that. And then we’ll have very candid and very direct conversations with our customers. Because you need to know that.”
To read more of Shaw remarks, visit https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/new-ns-president-admits-problems-promises-solutions/  

Im sure it's comforting to customers to know that the service issues are not PSR related.

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The customers are savvy enough to know this is ALL about PSR

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"Among the incentives being offered to workers are buying back vacation time and paying retention bonuses. Employees can also earn a bonus by making referrals to the NS training program."

Paying people more to work in a toxic, back-stabbing environment doesn't work anymore. 

They did those same things at CSX. Actually, the vacation buy-backs are something they've offered in years passed. Some people took them, and made a few extra bucks. But NOW, we usually joke about how we're NOT going to let them buy back vacation time because of how fed-up everyone is...

The part about supervisors ferrying crews is cute...again, something that happens every second of every day at CSX...usually with poor results. The trainmasters can't focus on what they need to focus on because PSR cut the number of vans by at least half. Yeah, that may have saved $$s from the budget, but you loose fluidity. That second van on duty is keeping trains and crews moving. They care nothing for keeping anything moving it seems...just cutting $$.

They could probably improve service by doing things like not spying on people, not treating people like crap, letting engineers actually run their trains, and keeping some of their yard vans...but that costs money so it's a no-go.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Among the incentives being offered to workers are
> buying back vacation time and paying retention
> bonuses. Employees can also earn a bonus by making
> referrals to the NS training program."
>
> Paying people more to work in a toxic,
> back-stabbing environment doesn't work anymore. 

Too true...we have one...count them one of twenty on property in training depsite incentives to hire in.....he seems like he will do well and be an asset, but where the other warm bodies went I know not. 

Fr8engineer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They did those same things at CSX. Actually, the
> vacation buy-backs are something they've offered
> in years passed. Some people took them, and made a
> few extra bucks. But NOW, we usually joke about
> how we're NOT going to let them buy back vacation
> time because of how fed-up everyone is...
>
> The part about supervisors ferrying crews is
> cute...again, something that happens every second
> of every day at CSX...usually with poor results.
> The trainmasters can't focus on what they need to
> focus on because PSR cut the number of vans by at
> least half. Yeah, that may have saved $$s from the
> budget, but you loose fluidity. That second van on
> duty is keeping trains and crews moving. They care
> nothing for keeping anything moving it
> seems...just cutting $$.
>
> They could probably improve service by doing
> things like not spying on people, not treating
> people like crap, letting engineers actually run
> their trains, and keeping some of their yard
> vans...but that costs money so it's a no-go.

Oh but that is a rerun of a rerun of a rerun of groundhog day! We are so stuck in that loop on my territory!

What a load of bovine excrement. It takes a hell of a BS artist to spin a self created problem into something that’s out of your control….. truly a master of the art at work.

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Drknow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What a load of bovine excrement. It takes a hell
> of a BS artist to spin a self created problem into
> something that’s out of your control….. truly
> a master of the art at work.
>
> Posted from iPhone

No bull here it is that bad....and now...it's snowed a foot and switch heaters are running out of fuel or not running at all. 

NS's problems are entirely of the company's own making. Incompetent management from top to bottom, no maintenance on what equipment and rights of way are left after all of their 'fire sales', half the terminals and hump yards idled, employee morale at an all time low, new hires making one trip and quitting, old heads furloughed right and left, the list goes on and on.  The blame lies squarely on the company's decisions in the past to stop promoting seasoned railroaders to management and instead hiring wet behind the ears college boys who don't know a boxcar from a caboose. Their get rid of everything we can in order to make a dime in the short time has come back to haunt them. They are getting exactly what they asked for. The best thing NS could do right now is either merge with or sell out to a well managed company if there are any left.  That may be hard to do since they are now the No.1 worst company in America to work for.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/22 13:11 by willobi.

What railroader, with union protection and Hours of Service, would even want a first level manager job? Pays less, works more hours, and offers even more grief.

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