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Hunter: more congestion means more to fix
I think NS is doing just fine Mr. Harrison. Thanks for the offer but no thanks.
It seems to me NS already has a lean operating system and thus the potential for gain is much lower than at CN and CP and IC before it. CSX may have opportunities to fix, but when something is already running well, you only have opportunities to mess it up.
If N.S. is not returning your calls that should tell you something, you idiot. Keep your hands off our railroads!
fI fail to see how this will relieve congestion in Chicago. Harrison is even against the
CREATE project.
CP may never buy NS, but this topic will certainly set a record for the number of NEWSWIRE articles about one topic.
The CP acquisition of NS or anyone else has nothing to do with anything except the ego of Mr. Harrison. This is not meant to be a defamatory statement. He certainly molded CN into a powerhouse railroad, and its stockholders love him for it even if some in the railfan community do not. With regard to CP, he has “fixed” the problem as he was enlisted to do, but now he has reached a point where there is little else he can do with CP to create his legacy with that railroad. There is no EJ&E or BCOL or DM&IR to buy, and CP has a vastly inferior route structure to CN. So, the only thing that is left is to acquire another Class I. And since CSX was courted for awhile, it looks like it pretty much doesn’t matter which one.
This is a terrorist attack on the railroad industry, and the damage is being done by EHH. The whole industry is now in fear because the damage now happening may never be repaired. I read that CN is still trying to rebuild and the second mainline of the former ICRR has to be rebuilt. I’m a big stockholder of NS and do not want short term stock value, I own it because I believe in the NS management for long term protection. The damage being done to CP lines will take five or more years to become evident, but it is being done, and EHH is using the takeover attempt to hide what will soon become evident. Just for example regarding CP offer of open access, the CP will not even let the Saratoga & North Creek RR to connect to NS, only the few miles from Saratoga Spring to Schenectady, NY for just very low value tailings from an old mine. The CP is speaking lies about open access.
When I first read of this I assumed NS was going after CP. After all, I viewed NS as a much better organization than CP. My advice to CP is Yankee go home!
If CP and NS merge, this means the end of the 21st Century Steam program and the heritage units.
Boy Blomberg those were some “softball” questions! They didn’t asked the hard ones, like about being rebuffed by CSX or about the fact that NS doesn’t want to talk!
I agree with Mr. Norton, the numbers posted tells us that NS is the power house here, not CP. Please take care of business in Canada and leave our heritage alone Mr. Harrison. We love our railroads just the way they are even if they are not ran as you think they should be.
CEO E. Hunter Harrison to me suffers from dementia and he needs to be in the nursing home with grandma! Enough said, as 16N rolls past me on track two in Richland, Pa!
I would worry more about NS’s less traveled routes. For instance, the line to Des Moines is now all trackage rights on BNSF all the way to St. Louis. NS’s former Wabash SE 18th street yard in Des Moines is empty most of the time, with most work around the area is performed from the former CB&Q Glake yard on the far southeast side of town. I hope they keep an interest in it because it was recently proposed by the city to turn SE 18th street yard into an intermodal ramp. NS could get money from all the other railroads in town to use their yard & ramp.
After mulling things over a bit, the folks at CSX told EHH “Thanks, but no thanks”; I’m sure Mr. Squires at NS will do the same. Not to mention the regulatory hurdles of TWO nations’ transportation boards to be overcome.
It’s probably a case that there are some hidden long-term issues at CP, and Harrison is trying desperately to “make a marriage” so as to hide them.
As addendum: “More congestion means more to fix”. What, does Harrison view himself as being a “railroad handyman”? If so, he really is full of himself, a megalomaniac, and shouldn’t be in charge of even one railroad, let alone trying to buy out a larger one.
I really question how the CP handled the sale money they received for the south end of the D&H. I bet they worked that money into the revenue received to make their operating ratio lower. That is how any railroad can make numbers lie. Want to show a loss, just add in extra capital expenses and buy some unneeded real estate. Want extra short term stock value, sell extra property. All smoke and mirrors, and after 5 years the truth develops. What about their headquarter change as to how those sale monies were accounted?
But the fear is that this was not the first time CP had been at NS headquarters, as they have been working over the sale of the south end of the D&H for a while, and went through many delays, and we all know how CP caused a 12 hour delay in moving #765 to Allentown and caused cancellation of the Binghamton trips. This is a terrorist attack on the entire railroad industry and has everyone, labor and management in most RR companies fearing any change from status quo.
Funny that Harrison talks about clearing congestion. His first moves while running the show at CN were single-tracking some busy double track sections (most notably around Jasper, AB and on the old GTW main line), creating more congestion, that persists today. He also started running 12000’ trains on single-track territory where the longest sidings were 8000’-long, meaning that trains often could only meet by splitting in two sidings. Total operating chaos ensured, especially in Winter, when the break pipe would take forever to charge. Eventually, some sidings where lengthened to 12000’, so now let’s try running 14000’ and 16000’ trains, just to make sure customers experience the worst service quality ever. And that’s not even talking about crew and locomotive shortage on CN in the mid-2000’s. Harrison’s brute force-methods applied on a network that has a more complex structure than the Canadian systems’s would totally wreck operations in a matter of weeks, if not days. Much like UP did in Houston in the late 90’s.
Mr. Cook, I also have a chunk of my retirement savings invested in NS because I believe it is a well run company in an essential industry. How do we let NS management know that we will stand by them if they reject CPs unwanted advances?
Anybody that thinks that Hunter is good for the railroad industry, doesn’t know anything about the railroad industry. All he does is make numbers look good, while customers and employees suffer at a high cost. He has CP so screwed up, it’s unbelievable. Go watch their railroad or talk to an employee. They owe horsepower hours to the NS/CSX right now, cause he uses all their power to run his trains, cause he stored his power to make those numbers look good. Its just hide the numbers, while railroad runs at bare minimum.
3 things
- Why did cp re buy the ice now dme? Really? Just to stick it to CN and KCS? CP does not use the ice at all to the potential it has.
- Only class 1 to not buy new EMD. Those motors are too gosh expensive let’s by as many gevos as we can!
- Only class one to not have piggy back service in the USA! If you can’t even get a stack train on time over your rails in WI…
Stay Classy CP!
Hunter should have left CN and gone off into retirement. Nope had to try and re do cp. Only problem is the only road the government might say ok to in a merger is KCS. However, he is too stupid to try!