Where i live in Ohio we have a Ford factory in a nearby suburb which is to close in 08. NS has a 1st trick crew that switches them daily so i guess they will be furloughed or bumped. I know Ford is a big customer on NS so i was wondering if anyone had any info on how it will effect NS. Thanx
CSX is facing the same thing at the Wixom plant in Michigan. Both loads in and loads out will be affected, of course. I’d guess the railroad personnel will simply move elsewhere, or maybe retire if they can and don’t want to move.
Of course, in the news today was talk about GM and Ford getting cozy…
NS won’t be too concerned, but the production cuts will be noticed. NS is large enough to be able to locate new business for the closed plants along their lines. No doubt they have already been approached by affected communities and by Ford with regard to this.
Ford use to pay $1 million dollars a day guranteed shipping for their auto parts.
The NS really has treated Ford good.I’ve had extra 096 symboled trains with 2 big units and 13 cars before.And seen as little as 6 on a train.Those were shutdown trains.Meaning if those cars didn’t make it there in timt the plant in which they were intended would shut the assembly line down.
I have noticed the 184 which comes over the Kenova District here,getting smaller and smaller,and the return empty train the 185 doing the same.Showing to me that the business is already starting to slow down some.
The transmission plant in Botavia,Ohio has already notified the NS it plans on closing also,if it hasn’t already by now.
It will hurt all shippers invovled with Ford in the end.And not to mention all the satellite plants that close,how they will effect the carriers.
Your looking at 30,000 jobs being slashed,if not more in the end.Can you wonder how much product that many people can produce in a week and even a year.A bunch.
But there is still plenty of business to go around.Because this will open the door for items that wouldn’t normaly come thru on certain trains and routes,to now do so. [2c]
Ford had a huge presence in Atlanta with NS providing them with dedicated 2 mile long rack and autoparts trains. (including large cuts of roadrailers loaded with parts) This closure is gonna take out a good-sized chunk of NS’s traffic here. But with the more than 60-70 non-auto trains already plying the rails on the west side of town, I doubt these dedicated trains will be missed a whole lot!
…The Ford reduction will hurt across many manufacturing locations…One being here in Muncie at the BWA plant…A major supplier of transfer case units for SUV’s and pickups…21% plus ruduction will hurt any supplier.
The mention of Ford and GM “talking” about a possibility of doing something together as in the news today…Recently they developed a 6-speed automatic transmission together and is now in production and being used by both firms…
Working together or even more…some kind of “arrangement”…might be their salvation against the onslought of foreign competition.
Maybe NS will be hurt some in the way of auto parts and fully assembled vehicles.But you will still see new fords on NS trains,built in china and indonesia as I understand it.GM is going to have vehicles assembled in mexico and parts made in china.You won’t see me buy any vehicles from either of these companies again.
Bill B
The problem with GM,Ford, and Chrysler is not the foreign comprtition, but with their legacy costs–which are their own doing. Toyota, Honda, et al had nothing to do with their current situation. The domestic builders solved the quality gap problem a decade ago, but couldn’t afford to build efficient cars that have a smaller profit margin. They needed the high margin trucks/SUVs to generate enough cash flow to pay all the benefits they promised.
As long as gas was cheap, no problem. Now, they can’t even give away SUVs. What’s really amazing is GM’s turn around plan is based on more trucks and large SUVs! Those idiots deserve to go out of business. Ford has aknowledged that the old business model won’t work anymore, but they may have waited too long to change. Now, if the competition was dumping cars in this country at unfair prices, I might feel a little sorry for them. The fact is, GM and Ford’s current mess is their own doing, so screw them if they can’t get their collective acts together.
As far as the railroads go, I see little effect even if GM and Ford went totally under. There is plenty of made in China crap they can haul for Walmart.
Actually, given that foreign auto companies like BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Toyota are stepping up their US assembly line operations, the railroad companies will likely try to get more business shipping parts and completed vehicles for the companies I mentioned.
GP40-2…I agree, the legacy costs are a major problem…Our domestic companies went too far years ago in contracts with labor along with other cost problems. They simply could not afford to pay {in the long run}, what they signed up for.
But to say Honda, Nissan and Toyota are not a factor in the equation is a bit much…With Ford able to pinch out a profit on the SUV’s and trucks they have been making and now…and for some time they have continued to be squeezed lower in their market share…all of the above has contributed to their now very serious problems. Ford at 14 or 15% market share…No wonder they are in trouble. Stock now in the 8 dollar range…Bad stuff.
so just what are you going to buy? what is so diferant from what they are telling you they are going to do than what they been doing. GM has been putting cars together in mexico for years. nothing new here and the long lived canada plants they had since the 70s. are you just mad because they went to china , and kiddle east area for labor?
…Most, if not all domestic auto producers assemble vehicles both north and south of our borders.
No American auto manufacturing co. assembles vehicles in the USA anymore that are completely built with only US made parts and assemblies. Just doesn’t happen anymore. Parts are manufactured all over the world for all auto co’s.
As long as total sales in this country reach around 17 million units or so per year I’d think the railroads, in general will have a generous amount of work in transporting them to market. As customers choices change I’m sure the business locations {for manufactures and RR’s}, will change…