I’m with you on an indicator for sarcasm, it gets lost in printed form.
Even though it isn’t a real forum/html tag, [sarcasm] Sarcastic Remark [/sarcasm] usually works…
But you’re right, those little inflections don’t carry over well in print in most cases.
[:-,] This usually conveys the intention behind a comment.
[:-,] mischief? or [:(!] angry, since that is in theory the emotion underlying sarcasm. Some say it’s passive aggressive, but I have doubts.
I think any time you have some mischief on a message board/forum there probably sarcasm lurking nearby.[:-^]
These days sarcasm fuels the nation. We need an emoticon showing where sarcasm is missing.
Is it possible that we can smell a FBI raid in the offing ?
Absolutely. There are no other problems and the FBI needs to keep busy…
Last month he blames the employees, this month he is dillusional enough to blame customers but of course, he is not to blame for any of this. He already has customers pulling away and I hear 2 MAJOR shippers have elected to not bother with CSX in 2018 and take the business elsewhere. I guess blaming he customers is a good way to deal with it…let see how pouringsalt into an open wound works out for him.
CSX is the USS Caine and Harrison is Captain Queeg
How infantile is Mr. Harrison going to be? He refuses to accept responsibility for the result of his actions.
Infantilism seems to be in vogue in many responsible positions these days.
Don’t you guys get it? After enough customers have left, his railroad will run smoothly.[:-^]
First, EHH has begun to reinstate operations at the hump in Avon, and I’m hearing Boyle’s may be soon if not already returning to service already.
I think that as usual in this day and age, the media, or in this case the railfans, are quick to form a singluar narrative about this huge complex of issues. There is no doubt that CSX is in the greatest Class I meltdown since the Conrail Breakup, but it isn’t just Harrison telling customers off.
Primarily, at least in the last two days, EHH has been tossing potshots at a railroad shipper’s union, whose stated goal is reciprocal switching. Shocker to nobody, they’re not going to let a good crisis go to waste. So yes EHH “blamed the shippers” in a way, but the true story involves much more than just his too-quick run at running CSX over the last few months.
Nothing happens in a vacuum. Shippers have been charging the railroads over service and pricing for years. While service isn’t always great, pricing seems to be a major gripe lately. While still far below pre-Staggers Act rates and with much better service then back in the day, prices have climbed over the last several years, as railroads, much like other industries, look to widening their margins in order to grow, instead of organic traffic growth.
Note also that for the railroads, growing traffic is not necessarily a good thing. Maury Kline pointed out Union Pacific’s struggles with pricing between 1950-2000, as the railroad looked to balance profits, and eventually capacity.
Our world runs on supply and demand, and today the major trunk lines are operating near capacity. Not all traffic is created equal. So, railroads have been raising rates to widen their margins and keep their railroads moving, forcing the customers looking for cheaper rates to look elsewhere. This is a natural consequence of any business which doesn’t have the capacity to serve every potential customer.
Not all busine
I wish we were near capacity on the Overland Route. At least they cut the pools down a bit. We have 40 trainmen borrowed out right now to two other seniority districts. Gives those hired and then furloughed (at least those who answered the recall) chance to work a few weeks before they get cut off again.
Jeff
Before EHH, CSX was a scheduled railroad. Car schedules and train schedules. With EHH at the controls, all schedules have been trashed.
Isn’t all this turmoil just going according to plan?
Runaway derailment from early last month in Indianapolis
Article includes a 20 minute clip of the Train Dispatchers wire during the incident.
No Injuries - only equipement and track damage.
This weeks numbers: CSX is still in the ditch, but inched upward a bit. Looking at the EP-724 reports since CSX has decided to take it’s marbles home from the AAR site,
Trains speed: Flat.
Dwell: System dwell dropped over an hour. This is good. Avon much better, but still not healthy. Waycross and Queensgate have caught a cold, though.
Cars on line: Down 1000. Nearly all covered hoppers.
Cars sitting 48 hours: dropped about 10%, but still an order of magnitude worse than NS.
Shipments: carload up about 1700, intermodal down 300.
Conclusion: A little bit better. CSX is hanging it’s hat on Labor Day slack period to get everything sorted. We’ll know in a couple weeks if that worked, and then about a month later, if it stuck. If you are under-resourced, these “resets” work for a bit, but then things slide back down hill.