At first it was a distaste for Canadian National, but now it sounds like the CN is making a turnaround, working vigorously on completing construction of the EJ&E improvements, and reinstating old IC and GTW SD40s into service, saving them from the Scrap pile that E. Hunter Harrison wanted to take them to.
The Wisconsin Central had about three intermodal terminals on their system, if I’m correct. One was in Green Bay, another in Minneapolis, and a third somewhere else on their system. They also operated parts of Schiller Park for their container shipments. The WC was growing into a powerful railroad empire. Then the CN took acquired them. Harrison got rid of the Intermodal load station in Green bay AND in Minneapolis, basically killing what seemed to be a growing buiness for the regional.He was also quick about getting rid of the WCs EMD power too, including what was left of the GBW (but that’s only a minor reason to hate him) One final thing is the employment. This is from an actual dispatcher of the CN, nee WC. He said that he works at one location for thirty days, and then they transfer him to another location for thirty days…which can be understandable so they can learn the system.
Now that He is the head of rival Canadian Pacific, He is getting rid of things here. The Sprinter service between Chicago and St Paul, the premeire service through those subdivisions, is now gone. 484 and its counterpart hasbeen mreged with 282s consist, and 282 has been operating with 3-4 variants some days recently.
Another thing is the elimination of the Milwaukee Intermodal operations, effective tomorrow. Train 277, a CP train that makes intermediate stops, has been, in the past month or so, carrying at least one set of well cars…
…well cars destined for MILWAUKEE
The city might file a lawsuit because of this action, seeing that UP can’t transport double stacks due to height restrictions. if Anything, I’d try and find a way
If my memory serves me correctly, the WC-CN merger was initiated by WC shareholders, who were getting restless over the fact that WC’s share price was stagnant, even though the corporation was well-managed.
Is that relevant? Mr. Railman may be totally off-base, but one would think you could actually comment on the substance of even one of his points, such as the d/cing of intermodal services.
Old enough to know that there will be long term economic impacts, as well as a raise in transportation costs, for all customers related to the cancellation of rail movement to Milwaukee, forcing them to move to the highway instead.
…19 going on 20…
Keep in mind how Hunters moves when he was in the CN had their customers flaring, especially the WC business partners.
You may hate Hunter Harrison. He may hate you. Your way of phrasing things make you sound immature. That’s your option. It detracts from how serious folks take your thoughts and ideas. …Just sayin…
Are you a CP stockholder? Harrison is doing what he thinks is best for the business- something he was asked to do, when he was put in that position. The results might not be things you like in the part of the little world that you live, but he isn’t doing it to please you. Is he doing what’s right? Or what’s wrong? I don’t know. You don’t know. I’d have to lean towards his perspective over yours. He’s run a couple more railroads than you have.
So, according to you, unless one is a shareholder or a railroad CEO, and is not immature, nobody can raise questions about the effectiveness of Harrison’s business strategy from various perspectives, including from the little world in which the poster may reside? If so, few of the folks who participate in these threads are in a position to do so.
Yes, he has run a few more railroads, but keep in mind that when he operated the CN, customers were not satisfied with the service. Just because CP stock goes up doesn’t mean customers are satisfied.
Old enough to know that the WSOR has seen positive customer feedback, which is leading to an increase in carloads as well as industrial and economic growth for the state of Wisconsin. I think of my statements as biased information, not answers…
Interesting the sort of responses generated by Mr. Railman raising questions about HH. Other than the responses concerning locomotives, all the other points are ignored. instead it’s “Kill the messenger” or in this case, belittle the questioner. You’d think HH was El Supremo Commandante in some banana republic in the 1930’s. No criticism allowed.
Mr. Railman, 19 going on 20? Love your youthful passion, don’t lose it. And that’s whether we agree or disagree. I just turned 59, and my passion only gets going after 3-4 cups of high-octane coffee.
Business is tough! The railroad business is tougher than many. HH did develop at track record for financial success in his terms with IC and then CN. Running of a railroad is not about making decisions that are idendified as black and white - the decisions are about deciphering the varying shades of gray to come to the best possible outcome.
Short haul inter-modal is a very high cost service for a carrier. The services Mr. Railman identified are short haul services. When looking at cost, not only do you have the costs associated with running the terminals themselves, you have the associated costs with setting your overall operating plan to give the trains associated with these services the priority handling that their rate structure and customer expectations demand.
Decisions made at the top levels of a corporation are made based on data that is not available to the general public. While those on the ground and outside the company may not agree with the decisions, the decisions are not theirs to make.
Like or dislike HH, his prior track record for success demands that he be given the benefit of the doubt at this early juncture in the running of the CP. Culture change is a hard pill to swallow, and HH is bringing culture change to CP - like it or not.
At first it was a distaste for Canadian National, but now it sounds like the CN is making a turnaround, working vigorously on completing construction of the EJ&E improvements, and reinstating old IC and GTW SD40s into service, saving them from the Scrap pile that E. Hunter Harrison wanted to take them to.
The improvements that you are lauding CN on the old EJE for were initated by Hunter Harrison before he left CN. They didn’t dream up those improvements overnight- those were all drawn up at the time of the EJE purchase. As for a couple SD40s returned to service- there were a couple brought back, but not exactly a large number.
The Wisconsin Central had about three intermodal terminals on their system, if I’m correct. One was in Green Bay, another in Minneapolis, and a third somewhere else on their system.
WC had intermodal ramps at New Brighton (Twin Cities), Stevens Point, Neenah, Chippewa Falls and Green Bay (which was a Schneider ramp operated by WC). The intermodal out of the Twin Cities was never run in a dedicated train (in fact most of it was Ashley Furniture containers received from the BNSF at Minneapolis), the Schneider service out of Green Bay was two pairs of trains a day to Chicago by the time of the CN merger. The ramps at Chippewa Falls, Neenah and Point were all small potatoes- in fact the Chippewa Falls ramp never handled a single load. The reasons for why CN ditched the Schneider trains was due to the short haul to Chicago where the traffic was interchanged to other roads- for the WC this was a good mid-range haul to an endpoint on their system. Not so for the CN.
They also operated parts of Schiller Park for their container shipments.
Soo/CP owned Schiller Park - that was not a WC ramp. WC had no ramp in the Chicagoland area. WC intermodal mostly went to the IC IMT ramp along I-55. WC did have some leased yard tracks at Schiller Park and ran a pair on manifest
I asked if he was a stockholder, because HH is doing what the stockholders want him to do, not what an anonymous poster on a message board thinks he should do.
Certainly, anybody can can raise questions about the effectiveness of Harrison’s business strategy from various perspectives, including from the little world in which the poster may reside. What I’m saying is, the tone “I hate HH…” is borderline trollish, and only one step above Beavis and Butthead saying “This sucks!..”.
The OP doesn’t have to act immature, but it is certainly within his rights to do so. I’m just saying, he might be better off to try a different approach, or syle, or something, if he’s looking for people to care what he thinks. That’s all.