The problem occurs when operations only wants to do what it’s always done or do things cheaply with the smallest effort (the bean counter effect). Same ol’ same ol’ doesn’t lead to growth. Innovation does.
If only it was that cut and dried. Your thoughts sound like the mantra of a paid motivatinal speaker. They get paid to say things like that, but don’t really have to get too involved with any reality of making it happen.
Every effort to increase business has an effect on every part of the business. Operations has to be able to fullfull the promises that marketing is making. A part of the issue, is that in most businesses now, you are not allowed to go slow or to try and fail. In our industry we see so many things that are approached with a win it or wear it attitude. Huge gambles are taken on untested programs. The winners are rewarded and the losers are fired- whether they had any say in it or not.
The current climate doesn’t seem to have much time for what greyhounds is advocating- building the business up from scratch. Right now, it’s all or nothing.
There has been some talk around these parts of CSX building a small yard near Chatsworth,Ga to siphon truck traffic away from Atlanta. At one time I read the initial plan was something like 50,000 containers annually, mainly from the Port of Savannah. No idea if/how that would affect traffic inbound from the west, possibly Memphis to Nashville and down? The locals have raised some opposition to the project and I am not sure what the current status is, although I bet someone here does! Seems like CSX ran into similar issues with siting the yard in North Carolina as well. Chatsworth is really a decent location, near enough to Chattanooga and the confluence of I75 and I24 l, gets you anywhere fairly quickly.
greyhounds stated [in part] in a preceding post on this Thread: "…Well, a couple of things.
First, the fact that the traffic exists can be documented. But it’s currently moving by over the road trucking. Can the railroad divert it to intermodal is the first question. A following question is will the amount diverted to intermodal and the resulting revenue justify any necessary expenditures?
Remember what a wise old railroad man (Southern Pacific) once said: “There is no certainty, only reason and experience to guide us.” Taking prudent and evaluated financial risks is a part of any business, including railroading. Don’t get reckless. But totally avoiding business risks is its own significant risk. As they reportedly say in the Army: “Anything you do can get you killed, including nothing.”…"[snipped]
One way to see some of the potential for traffic might be to survey the traffic existing currently on the some of the ‘road-links’ involved. There are some city pairs that have for years seemed to ‘cry out’ for relief from the commercial traffic flow; and have seemed to be needing some form of relief for some time.
Purely, personal, and unscientifc observatons seem to point to the truck- traffic flow between Atlanta and Birmingham. Both cities seem to be heavily, destinations and origins for freight. Distance is also short being approx only 149 miles apart.
Would seem to call for a hub and spoke operation, with the railroad serving as the transport; the major cost added would seem to be drayage at the pick up and delivery.
Atlanta, Birmingham, Meridian,Ms, Jackson,M. and Dallas-Ft.Worth.
Already, in-part of a NS-KCS Route(?). ‘The Meridian Speedway’, with Yard and Interchange in Shreveport, which accesses KCS System, points both North, and South.
The there
If the rails lack the personnel to do what greyhounds used to do, then top management needs to do something about that. It requires an aggressive, creative staff backed by resources and a committment by management to break through obstructions.
Stockholders don’t want that. They want instant profits and stock value without any of that naughty old risk and investment.
The railroads don’t need to merge to handle short-to-medium hauls that cross interchange barriers. They can cooperate and market it like a single line haul. Run-through loose car trains have been running for years.
There is still one major roadblock to railroads cooperating on unbalanced short-to-medium hauls (like ATL-MSP) and that is division of revenues. The railroad on the short side doesn’t want to/won’t participate without a bigger slice of the pie to make it worth the effort (in their eyes) and the railroad on the long side won’t give up their “fair share”.
If and when that can be worked out, the railroad(s) can actively go after those loads that are out there, waiting.
The phrase “long term investment” isn’t in their vocabulary any more…
Of course, that’s true for a lot of things. Remember when even a stinker of a TV show would run for an entire season? Now, if the ratings aren’t good immediately, out it goes.
There were more than a few shows “back in the day” that developed a following over time and became beloved…
I must disagree with some of the posters above about “stockholder wants.”
Which stockholders? Day (or month) traders maybe, but certainly not me. If I find a company I believe in, with (sometimes) a dividend I like, I stick with it until shown a reason I shouldn’t.
I think the short-term thinking is more on the part of executives trying to satisfy the terms of their annual bonus. Which terms reflect the thinking of the board, about which most investors know precious little.
So don’t scapegoat the investors, who do make the wheels turn.
Now that I think about it, I’ll also concede you the Bill Ackmans. They are the wild card, sometimes for good, sometimes for ill. I will say I bought CP only after Ackman brought in Hunter Harrison.
Institutional investors - those trading thousands to millions of shares and looking for a return today, not tomorrow or the next day.
Understood, but the entity that buys several million dollars worth of stocks at a time generally has some different motives than you do.
I could be wrong, but as I recall, computers are playing heavily in the stock trading game - and I would imagine that they are playing nearly second to second, not week to week or month to month.
A million shares increasing in value by $.02 has a yield of $20,000 - time to sell. Do that several times an hour and you’re talking some cash. Then multiply by days and weeks. These folks are gamblers, not investors. Investing is for chumps like us.
[oops] WE are sort of getting out into the ‘weeds’, but stock value, and Returns on Investment definitely come into play as a corporate decision is made about how as railroad manages its system.
Seems that tree68 and Murphy Siding make some pretty valid points about stock trading in this day and time; particularly, where computer programs are used to make almost instaneous trades, activities can be keyed for the computer to ‘move’ when perameters are set for it. A couple of triggers might be stock volumes trading or limits as to pricing.
dakotafred seems to fall into a group that would be ‘traditional traders(?)’. A system that works for his needs and goals.[tup] My position is more of interested bystander, A couple of times, acting on good friends, I di
Day trading, programmed trading, options trading are just extreme examples of the casino, aka, the stock market. Unless you purchase an IPO or some new shares released by a corporation, you really aren’t investing in the company in the sense that you are adding to its capital, even if you hold them for twenty years. You’ve only bought that capital from a prior owner, i.e., a transfer. Along the way, you may receive some dividends.
If sam (a clever non-railroader) can envision many possible targets (routes and services) for revenue growth, it shows that it is possible for the rails to do so, but only if they hired folks with some vision who were given a mandate.
I haven’t done an analysis of actual traffic, but the old Frisco “river line” seems underutilized. I don’t know the reason, but I seldom see a train on there, and when I do, it’s a medium length manifest with old power on the front.
L & N used to have a line that came off the Memphis-Nashville line at about the midway point a
BLS53 wrote the following post[in part].
Check out this link @http://www.abandonedrails.com/Hardin_Southern_Railroad
The line in question is the former NC&St.L RR from Paris,Tn. to Paducah,Ky.
[This site is of interest if tracking abandonments in Tenn:] http://www.abandonedrails.com/Tennessee
BNSF single-line intermodal service should be feasible, at least TOFC, via Minneapolis- Galesburg-Centralia (trackage-rights via CN)-Memphis-Birmingham-(haulage via CSX)-Atlanta. (Clearances for double-stack? Unknown.) The route should not be much more than 10% circuitous versus highway.
The major problem? Volume. Interestingly, data are available here: “Freight Analysis Framework Data Tabulation Tool (FAF4)” online at: http://faf.ornl.gov/fafweb/Extraction0.aspx
“FAF4” inquiries show the limited size of the opportunity: Between 40 and 50 truckloads per day each way between the ENTIRE states of Minnesota and Georgia. If entirely diverted, that volume alone would not support investment in daily train service. But, perhaps as greyhounds and others have advocated, “beyond” traffic (Florida, for example) could make the route viable.
I don’t know about all of the Class 1s, but BNSF seems to be doing market development for intermodal:
http://bnsf.com/about-bnsf/financial-information/fixed-income-investors/pdf/fixed-income-investor-presentation-3rd-quarter-2015.pdf
BNSF: Fixed-Income Investors Presentation, 3rd Quarter, 2015, page 22
“113K Over-the-Road Conversions to BNSF Intermodal in 2014”
“12 member Intermodal Solutions Team dedicated to working with shippers to facilitate conversions”
3.6M
U S Loads Analyzed
Yes, it was a NC & StL line. L & N bought them in 1957. The Hardin Southern ran a tourist train from Hardin Ky to Murray KY for awhile, but went out of business about 10 years ago. There’s a shortline (KWT) that operates south of Murray into Tennessee that connects with the CSX. The track north of Hardin (about 40 miles worth) into Paducah, has been removed for over 30 years.