As a frontline manager at Alyths CPR facility I will be the first to tell you things in Calgary are at an all time low. I have been a manager within CP for 25+ years an have seen both he good and the bad.
Aug 13 - Alyth made a 5 day attempt to close down hump operations. This turned out to be an utter failure. Within 5 days the yard which has a capacity of 2500 cars was at a implement standstill. Trains and customer traffic was flooded from east to west causing a complete yard meltdown. The hump was fired back up and has been for the last month. It took 3 weeks to clean up the mess shutting down the hump created.
1 month later here we are again September 17th - we are going to try it again. Frontline managers have been given little or no guidance into how this operation is going to work. Needless to say there is littleor no plan. We will see how long it takes his time but my bet is within 7 days we will be virtually shut down again. Except this time there is no going back, we will be forced to deal with the fall out and as managers find a way to make it work.
As for rumors , cp will be moving no the old Ogden shops early into 2013. That is 100% they are paying way to much to rent space at GCS and this will enable them to free up huge costs.
The management at alyth in the operations will be cut in half. It has already begun and thy are consolidating many management positions. Although they have yet to announce any major staffing changes te upper management does have a plan but is operating much like the CIA “top secret” they will not disclose who hey will keep or who they will fire but it is known though the ranks that people will go and be going fast.
The feeling is that they will want to keep as many managers on through this initial change, once they have converted to full flat switching they will then start to cut around the edges until management is down to the skeleton they want it to be. The next step wi
I understand the frustration, morale, and plight being expressed here, but would feel better about it and discussing it if the writer were identified. It may ber 100% correct or 100% incorrect. Either way commenters would be sticking their necks out on something that isn’t really verified but rather his opinion. Again, he may be 100% right, 100% honest…and I don’t doubt either…but just am careful in accepting and commenting.
Having given Henry6’s comments due consideration I will jump in here.
Alyth can’t be evaluated by the new regime simply by the amount of traffic Alberta adds and subtracts from each train. It performs a crucial step in the operation of the company’s transcontinental network. We have all heard about EHH’s desire to have each train “correctly” powered, meaning the minimum possible HP to get the train over the road. However, no correctly powered train coming from the east, north, or south can possibly make it west to Vancouver. And it is not like the “A” ratings are a “suggestion”, and a few cars can be added or subtracted willy-nilly. The differences between WB train sizes and power requirements and those of trains going in the other three directions are profound.
Come on Henry, the writer mentioned that he is still working for CPR. I’m sure going public with the sordid reality of how things are developing will be a very fast way to the unemployment line if he (or she) gets identified by EHH. From the rumblings I have heard he is not too far off in his description, and can only applaud his courage in posting this.
I have to agree with CX500 on this one for two reasons.
First you are no different than the original poster in that we do not know who you really are. In addition, most of you posts are opinion peices and they seem to have far less factual basis than the original poster’s in this case.
Second, in the environment he describes attaching your real name to anything but a kiss ass post about your employer is terminally stupid. You might notice that anyone still in the business does not attach their real name to anything they post here. There is no need to attract unwanted attention, and any attentiion caused by a post here WILL be unwanted.
But you do know who I am…you can click on my name and find out. The poster is totally unknown. Therefore we can only give opinions on what he said and not be sure ot what is true and what is either not true, an exaggeration, or his opinion. Everybody has expressed opinions that they agree with him and inserted that their opinion is that he is 100% truthful. I don’t know him, I don’t pretend to know the CP situation as he presents it. And unless one is also a CP employee, anything is said is mere conjecture of opinions and not commentary on facts. He may be 100% correct. I don’t know anyone else who could be at this moment.
I clicked on your name, as you suggested, and find you have not submitted a biography, so you first statement is unture. Even if you had posted a biography there would be no particular reason to believe it. That second comment is not about you, it is about the nature of this space.
Neither I nor BaltACD said anything about the original poster’s veracity.
Given all the blather that gets posted here daily, and to which you contribute an extra ordinary share, why are you attacking this guy?
First, my name is Henry Sommers. I am 69 years old, live in Vestal, NY and have been a railfan for at least 68 years I guess having been born in NYC in 1943, raised next to the DL&W RR tracks in Denville, NJ, and rode lots of DL&W, LIRR, and NYC subways and trolleys while growing up. I am semi retired from a career in broadcasting and ride lots of NYC commuter rail and transit as part of my hobby of trains.
As for the poster, I do not attack him or his statements, just feel I must be wary without full indentity or accreditation. Maybe it’s my journalistic news background of knowing the source to verify authenticity of what is spoken He might be 100% right or he might be setting someone or us up. We can opine on what he says but not really discuss it as fact until such time as it is verified. But as you alluded, PNWRMNM, just because it is written here or on our profile page, does not make it true either.
Henry, I have no doubt that somebody in upper management has read his posting and has tried to deduce who he is. If he is found out, he likely will receive a phone call not to come to work and that any personal belongings will be sent to him. In my opinion he said too much when he said that he was a manager at Alyth, better to leave upper management wondering if he was an agreement or non-agreement employee.
As to the changes happening look for it to take several months or perhaps a year for things to stabilize. A railway is a complex network and is in constant change as over time traffic flows change. Right now CP is making changes in Intermodal operations to tighten up the timetable and make the offering more desireable to customers, at the same time there are headwinds for the services to the Port of Montreal due to low water levels from the drought causing Maersk to divert ships to Halifax which benefits CN at the expense of CP. Major changes in carload operations can take years to reach equilibrium, and even then small changes are always happening as traffic flows are won or lost.
Well, I can confirm two things: Alyth’s hump was indeed shut down in August and has indeed been shut down, theoretically permanently, this week. Humping a thousand cars a day may not be the most efficient use of the hump, but I can see it causing problems in such a busy yard.
As for the comments about management, one needs look no farther than CN five years ago to authenticate what he’s said.
Having been employed by a major carrier through multiple mergers in both management and craft positions I will say one thing…If the operating plan does not fit the physical plant that it is to operate on - IT WILL FAIL TO THE POINT OF GRIDLOCK. I have seen too many hot shots strut out THEIR plan and lock the physical plant down in a relative heart beat.
I have no idea of how the CP’s physical plant is configured or currently operated or how HH’s plan is intended to work. Maybe something was learned from the first hump shut down that will make the 2nd shut down work. Time will tell.
Remember - the indigestion the UP had when absorbing the CNW and later the SP were because of flawed operating plans that did not fit the physical plant it was to be operated on. CSX’s indigestion after the ConRail acquisition was former ConRail managers attempting to implement the ConRail plan on the CSX plant that was not configured for it to work. You either have the operating plan fit the plant, or reconfigure the plant to fit the plan - the first option is pen strokes, the 2nd is generally massive investment in physical plant.
This is going to be a wild and bumpy ride for CP. Sounds like this is going to be a network redesign done on the fly - guided directly by HH. He only has two years to get things done. It took NS two years to design and roll out TOP (network redesign).
Sounds like this will be a “two steps forward, one step back” adventure.
One thing about implementing operating plans - Resources (power, crews, MofW work) must be available and utilized to support the plan.
I have seen workable plans defeated by not having the resources in place to support it. If you are supposed to be originating 4 trains that require 3 units each and the inbound power to the location only supplies 8 - you have a problem. If the plan requires a crew base that needs 35 crews, and you only have 26 crews available you have a problem. The main line from a critical terminal requires major work that MofW needs 12 hours a day to work on, you have a problem. Making plans work requires effort in overcoming the real world problems - and the desire to do so.
Several posters have pointed out the absolute necessity of having a plan, and a plan that matches what the physical plant is capable of. From what I have heard, originally from CN and now CP, Hunter does not have any detailed plan. Instead, he has a concept, orders it to be so, and leaves it to lesser mortals to implement. Never mind that it won’t work, don’t dare criticise me, just do it or out the door you go.
As a trivial example, while EHH was in command at CN there were a number of attempts to shut down their Saskatoon-Calgary direct line and route the traffic from the east through Edmonton and south. The new challenge of meeting 12,000 foot trains on a line that only had 5,000 foot sidings meant at times one train got split between three of them. After the meet it then had to back up for miles before it was reassembled and could proceed. Eventually, after several years of continued short lived attempts, a new long siding was built on the subdivision and the rerouting became feasible. Good planning? - I don’t think so!