A moments silence for the once mighty Canadian National Railways

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I don’t know how much longer the shareholders can be brainwashed into believing that the CNR is being efficiently managed. There is only so much that can be held back from the general public by the companies ‘Rumour and Damage Control Teams’, ( R&DCT). They cannot preform miracles since they are only human. There will be future job openings very soon in that department and the replacements will be very busy since the company can operate on deferred maintenance and reduced manpower for only so long until the bottom falls out.

Saturday, August 06 2005 @ 01:41 AM MDT

Toxic Spill in B.C. & Oil Slicks in Alberta
Contributed by: whelan costen
Double Blast on Our Water!
CN has a double whammy on their hands, and the environment suffers for their mistakes, aka accidents! Here are the two stories.

Toxic liquid spills into river as freight train derails in B.C.

SQUAMISH, B.C. (CP) - A CN Rail freight trail derailed about 30 kilometres north of here Friday, sending nine cars plunging into the Cheakamus River canyon and causing a toxic spill.

CN said in a news release the 144-car train bound for Prince George, B.C., from North Vancouver left the track around 7:15 a.m. PDT about 40 kilometres south of Whistler.

One of the derailed cars was loaded with about 51,000 litres of sodium hydroxide, a highly corrosive liquid. The tank car tumbled down the steep embankment and broke open, spilling most of its contents into the Cheakamus River, a B.C. Environment Ministry official said.

Riedler said samples were being taken from the river to measure the rate of dilution of the chemical, which dissolves in water and is impossible to recover.

Nearby wells may also be tested, he said. (continued next page)

Top story
Protesters end blockade of rail tracks at oil-fouled Alta. lake

(CBC) - Protesters have ended a blockade of the CN Rail’s main l

2

This is nuts. I almost forgot about the B.C incident. The B.C government is likely going to come down hard on CN now in light of the Alberta incident and also the river is a major source of water for B.C residents as well as the fishing industry.

This maybe the begining of CN’s demise as it should now force the federal government to come down hard and mercilessly on them in order to protect their minority government. All I can say to CN is pray.

3

These accidents don’t seem to be hitting the American biz sites like Yahoo or msnbc. I suspect that if these tragedies and near-tragedies had happened to an American Class I in the USA, they would have been reported more thoroughly. CP seems to me to be a little more proactive in dealing with bad news but the fact is, CN and CP are still international stocks and we won’t get to hear it all. Pity, because moral suasion can sometimes induce a RR to “clean up its act,” introducing slow orders, for example, when sufficiently nagged by individual investors and threatened with even more bad press.

4

I guess that will happen when the financial results stop leading the industry. So far there hasn’t been any signs of that happening. Given the labour contract issues in the first half of this year one could have expected poor results but they still improved over last year.

How is CN’s derailments any worse than BNSF two derailments/collisions this week? Certainly the location (lakes and rivers) and cars (oil and chemicals) they derailed brought caused bad publicity but that just sounds like bad luck on CN part to me.

5

NS had a tragic accident this year in SC. It did not seem to affect their stock.

I believe Clique simply wants to dance on the grave of the CN…and there may be several others north of the border that would agree.

CN ushered in big changes over the past 10 years and affected many. That is the difference between being a government provider of jobs and services, with everyone at the nipple, and a stand alone business.

Time will tell which is the better method for CN.

ed

6

“I believe Clique simply wants to dance on the grave of the CN”

With 35 years on, I have every right to dance. And I don’t have to justify that to anyone.

Signal Mechanic.
Signal Department.
Canadian National Railways.

7

Their public image might be tarnished but no doubt insurance will help keep the bottom line from bottoming out.

8

Cliqueof One: You seem to be of the opinion that CN is going to heck in a handbasket,why is that?

9

“Cliqueof One: You seem to be of the opinion that CN is going to heck in a handbasket,why is that?”

With my years of service along with the experience gained, I have a good grasp of reality. Since I show an interest in the company and the employees, past, present, and future, and also do my job to the best of my abilaty with the limited time, tools and material while trying to show some pride in my work, I’m respected by my fellow workers and also by a fair amount of management. You would have to work for CN in Canada to realise the present state of affairs. To tell anyone who is not an employee and/or chooses to ignore the obvious, would be a waste of my time and energy. I am witness to the degradation of the system every working and now, nonworking day. I may be one of the few that take the time to report it. But I’m not the only one to see it.

Signal Mechanic.
Signal Department.
Canadian National Railways.

10

I’m sorry that I’m a waste of your time and energy. I’m not picking a fight with you, rather I’m asking,more-or-less,what’s up that makes you feel that way? If this is a waste of your time and energy,why do ypu come a forum and post? I am confused.

Sorry.

11

Maybe he has hope that others then him and myself will see CN the way we do. I know many CN workers in and around the Great Lakes System who have said the same thing. Most would rather have kept Tellier on as the boss.

I imagine those who don’t have to swim in an oil ridden lake or drink water tainted with caustic soda, have plenty of nice things to say about CN. At any rate, Canadian laws are quite specific about environmental messes like that and they are breaking it. This is just two of the latest ones. It has alot to do with lack of caring on maintainance and how it gets done. If you read the Newswire about the derailment of an Amtrak train, the STB I believe it was (some authority), cited that it was poor continuous welding and they recommended that they essential did an audit of the engineering department to make sure they followed the guidelines. I understand people can make mistakes but it should be up to management to oversee and prevent as many as they can catch; otherwise what good are they?

12

"I’m sorry that I’m a waste of your time and energy. I’m not picking a fight with you, rather I’m asking,more-or-less,what’s up that makes you feel that way? If this is a waste of your time and energy,why do ypu come a forum and post? I am confused.

Sorry."

What can I say. Over the past 3 years or so I’ve been chastised and ridiculed for my opinions by some members here. I’ve noticed that some may ask the questions but they will not except the answer, going so far as to denounce anything I say. Some have the gall to patronise me. I’ve become a little gun shy because of this. I just get frustrated by being treated with contempt because I call it as it is. And that opinion is not what this forum will except.

Signal Mechanic.
Signal Department.
Canadian National Railways.

13

Re: NS’s accident: It was a bad one, a chlorine spill that killed seven (or was it nine?) townspeople.

I have to give NS’ Chairman credit for talking about the spill in the NS 2004 Annual Report; re-apologizing, and mentioning specific steps that had been taken to avert this kind of tragedy again. In a media-soaked society such as ours, a big corp. like NS might as well “fess up.” To ignore it or downplay it with glib PR is the kind of response that leads people to loathe large companies. Even if they are not shippers, a low opinion on the part of large numbers of Americans is enough to depress stock price.

If you want to read it, go to nscorp dot com and click “Investors”.

14

Junctionfan and CliqueofOne: Thanks for the explanation/clarification. I haven’t been around as long as most , and just wondered.
Thanks

15

"Cliqueof One
All i have ever seen you post is all the negetive news about CN.
I know your from the old school but its time to move on.
There is nothing that you can say or do that way change the
way it is run.I am glad as a Canadian that the goverment sold
CN because all CN was before they went public was a money
loosing railway.I have freinds that are enginemen and I hear them
complain about how hard they have to work.I worked many years
for the railway and I moved on .Now I work for myself best thing I
ever did.
With 35 years of service and you age you should be able to pack it in.

16

With all due respect, the biggest problem with people as a whole, are too quick to throw in the towel when it comes to the “big issues” which is why nothing happens and the instigators go ahead thinking they will never be challenged and so will push it to the boundaries.

We can’t do that; that is the biggest mistake society ever made. This is why there is so much violence in the streets, children are turning into nasty little maggots, politicians and bureucrats do what they like with spin-doctors on hand, and large corporations run a muck hiding behind the loop holes of law and constitution. Not enough people care and yet they are quick to complain but don’t follow through. Is morality dead or redefined into convenience?

17

I post negative news about CN because there is negative news about CN. Nothing more, nothing less. If you want to read positive news about CN, dig out your November 2002 copy of Trains. You remember it don’t you? A totality one sided story that ignores the employees perspective. Or read the July 2004 issue of Progressive Railroading. If you don’t want to view anything that doesn’t show CN in a positive light then you have the right not to read it. But is it fair to others to only have access to company propaganda and be denied the whole story?
To say that CN was a money losing railway when it was a crown corporation is a complete and utter fallacy perpetrated by right wing think tanks who wanted to privatise it. I distinctly remember years in the 1980s when the company turned a healthy profit and the Canadian government took it to help pay down its own debt.
I have always worked hard. The Signal Department was well managed and our performance for the most part was first rate. Now we are treading in deep water and going around in circles. Our field supervisors have to endure so much verbal and physiological abuse from Harrison’s team, that many of them have either quit or came back to the ranks. I know I couldn’t put with the ranting and raving of this team that think to display temper tantrums is conducive to a well run railway. The Signal Department has lost a lot of good supervisors these last 6 years and the rank and file employees want nothing to do with the position.
I have 662 days to go until I retire for the full pension.

Signal Mechanic.
Signal Department.
Canadian National Railways.

18

CN has always made profit except for a couple of times in history and one of which was when Hayes was president of the GTW.

If you mean that CN’s profit was lower then say previous fiscal years then big deal. Alot of corporation have that problem; that is the facts of economics including bouts of recession, depression and other factors for lower than previous quarter that makes little if no difference whether private or publicly owned.

19

Clique:

I can certainly identify with your frustrations. Years ago (15 to be exact) I had a horrible situation at work and it greatly affected my outlook.

Hopefully you can make it thru til your pension sets in.

As a shareholder (I have done very well with this investment, from IC days), I would certainly like to know some examples of the “verbal and physological” abuse. “Ranting and ravings” also.

I doubt if you will give examples of these, as it would end up being a drawn out explanation…so tell me this…what exactly is CN’s management doing which impacts safety and long term operations?

thanks,

ed

20

YAWN. It’s the same ol’ story with the Clicker…

He and Andrew are among the most predictable people here…along with our LTL buddy Jim…

Spare us the whining…

LC