Take this as you will
When I was working, November 21st, 2005…the UP’s Vice President of Operations hopped on with General Manager Gary Bethel and Kenny Zorger on a Track Car…from the Indianapolis Amtrak Depot, around the crawfordsville to Lafayette, IN
Is this to take place on Friday, November 25th?
Jay
It was the 21st…I just mis typed
There’s about five different ways I can take this. And this topic is just a couldron of speculation. I truly doubt in my mind that CSX and UP would merge, the Feds wouldn’t allow it. The customer service between the two ranks last compared to the other carriers. I know that the UP has had most of the recent dark territory collisions on their lines; so it makes me think that the UP VP of Ops is just seeing how we do it in comparison? The Crawfordsville Branch is about the busiest piece of dark territory I can think of, so it may be a prime example of how to run safely in dark territory? I’m just throwing up guesses, but I’m ruling out takeovers and mergers. There’s no UP trackage that connects to what they were running on so I"m ruling out a takeover of the Crawfordsville Branch too. Honestly, I’d be way more nervous if UP management were out riding to and from St. Louis on the St. Louis line. I guess we’ll just have to find out later.
Mabe UPRR and CSXT are just kissing each other in the butt. Or that be the reason why I am seeing alot of CSXT Locomotives on the UPRR system.
I’d say no to that last comment.In the last month I have seen as many UP engines and CSX engines as ever here on the NS.I’ve had brand new engines from each.We still get alot of BNSF engines.
There was also a tour of the UP Director’s Special cars over the CP last month. The cars were interchanged back to UP at St. Paul, MN, where the UP E-units picked them up and headed back to Omaha.
I may not be all that unusual for a foreign line honcho looking at somebody else’s railroad.
Railroad x gets an idea for using a piece of railroad y’s track. New run through, detour route, rights, whatever. E-mails, phone calls, yada, yada, power breakfast, “lets go look at the railroad”. An operating type can spot a deal buster in a New York heartbeat. “Looks like adding a hundred feet to that siding will mean moving 3 houses and a half of the mountain.”
Somethings have to be done IRL.