I received my October Trains today and read with interest the KCS article. I have always been intrigued by this railroad. The article was excellent (Fred Frailey is absolutely the best railroad reporter, also pretty good personal financial editor too).
What I came away with from the article is the value of any existing railroad line today. Take a good look at the article and how Haggarty pieced together a railroad. That can even be taken a little further by the inclusion of the Speedway, which the IC essentially gave away 20 years ago. Also, take a look at the KC - StL line, now hosting a daily Schneider train.
The Texas routes, Speedway, and the former GMO route across Missouri were not very valuable a few years ago. Things are a’changin in the US economy, positively affecting the rail industry. The regional railroads such as Rail America could find themselves in a very good position as the primary lines continue to plug up.
I found the article to be quite interesting as well. Overall, I get the impression that Mike Havert is lucky. Someone famous said, given the choice to be good, or be lucky, he’d pick lucky. All the big moves made by KCS were things that could have gone either way. Things like the Meridian Speedway success overshadow that track purchase where KCS overpaid a gazillion dollars, because they thought UP would bid it that high. Due to hard work and luck, I believe KCS will go on to great things-right up until another Class 1 snatches them up.If you want to see the flip side of the luck thing, look no farther than Kevin Scheiffer/DM&E.[;)]
Well, I haven’t received the magazine yet, but with regards to Haverty…It’s more than luck.
He knows what he’s doing
He believes in what he’s doing.
Put those two together and an individual can do a lot.
Haverty knew enough, and believed in it enough, to invite Mr. J.B. Hunt himself up to Chicago and ride a business car behind a Santa Fe intermodal. Before that, Mr. Hunt had been somewhat adverse to using intermodal to move his trailers. Haverty had the sale made by the time they got to Galesburg. You gotta like a railroad president who actually sells his service.
J.B. Hunt was literally a self made man. He started out as a truck driver and wound up with J.B. Hunt the company, the 2nd largest truckload carrier in the U.S. You couldn’t fool him, or BS him, but with the right service and a belief in that service you could sell him. It took a man like Haverty to do that.
Today, J.B. Hunt the company makes more gross revenue from its intermodal operations than it does from its over the road trucking operations.
Haverty did that, or at least he headed the operation that produced the service, and personally sold the service, that did that.
J.B. Hunt was literally a self made man. I understand he married pretty well, Rockefeller Family $$$$$$$$$; You still have to give the devil his due, he’s done right things right for the last ten years.
The last 10 years? Try the last 20 years. JBH has been a force in truckload business for years. Regarding the financial info given for KCS, I am not sure if the mutual fund company was included or not in the 1996 numbers. That would make a big difference.
I dont know much about Haverty, but you have to like his style. I think he is one of us. He looks at maps and tries to connect the lines, much like many of the discussions here. It was really interesting about the purchase of the TexMex…his thinking that UP would be forced to sell one of the lines with the merger with SP. He missed, but you have to admire that kind of thinking. He certainly put together a pretty good franchise in Mexico. His thought process about the containers is brilliant, but will they be able to execute the plan?
All in all, I closed the magazine with a pretty good impression of the man. Unlike the UP managers which have an incredible franchise which they still manage to screw up, Havarty has to put together a system without many resources.
The intermodal team at KCS has one big thing going for them that the “big” RR’s forgot a few years ago … to actually give 2 hoots about the customer and what the customer wants and needs.
I can tell you personally that this is big part of why they have some new services on their RR. Haverty has put together a good team and they work hard.
The once-mighty BNSF can’t touch the on-time service numbers that KCS is posting these days.
Fred Frailey, in my opinion, is the best feature writer to grace the pages of the magazine. I have been reading his work since the 1980’s. The KCS article was another top notch. In addition for any SP/SSW fans out there who have read his book on the history of the Blue Streak Merchandise, I prefer you add it to your library. Keep the articles coming Fred.
Amen about Fred Frailey. I have mentioned this several times…the Blue Streak Merchandise book is a wonderful look at how railroading has changed over the years, based on one incredible train.
Execelent writer and wonderful work. You have to admire the KCS of Mike Haverty’s vision, and ability to steer to the goal he has set for his railroad. He will be right up there with some of the other respected visionaries in the business.
I’ll agree with that, but limit it to the post DPM issues, and I’d add Tom Murray as a close second. Perhaps in the future MWH could become a feature writer as well.
Interesting to see that Fred recognized the high level of paranoia among the Class 1 senior managers. Just shows that some things never change. It is a small club indeed.