When I think of the life and legacy of the 21st Century railroad empire builder and most visible proponent of precision railroad scheduling, E. Hunter Harrison, I consider the final weeks of the life of William the Conqueror.
That railroad baron wannabe spread his STD, that is, Surface Transportation Disorder of Precision Scheduled Railroading, PSR, from CN to Canadian Pacifice railroad and finally to CSX Transportation. We could have hoped it stopped there but no. PSR is now spreading to Union Pacific.
Here's a definition of Precision Scheduled Railroading, PSR, from Progressive Railroading
"PSR is designed to improve service reliability, boost operating efficiency and reduce network complexity by shifting the operational focus from moving trains to moving individual rail cars. The goals: minimize car dwell time and classification events, reduce locomotive requirements and balance train movements to improve crew and asset utilization."
Here's what it really means: Rip off as many people as possible for a short term gain for you and yours. E Hunter Harrison was taught that any asset or tool, including human beings, that isn't making money for you is losing money for you. So:
Fire as many employees as you can and work the remaining ones like devils.
Get rid of locomotives.
Shut down yards, especially more expensive hump yards.
Build longer trains.
Build more double decker container trains.
Grab any money that had been reserved for system upgrades to be spent on stock buybacks.
Sell off the lowest volume and lowest profit pieces of the road and just abandon the roads you don't think you can sell.
Customer service? Customers be damned.
Jack up rates until the customers are willing to pay three to five times for the cost of truck transport.
Cut back on service for all shippers, stop serving the least profitable customers entirely and don't answer the phones or emails unless there's a wreck.
The public is left with a shrunken railroad system that badly serves businesses and passengers or no longer exists at all. Precision Scheduled Railroading is nothing new. It's just short term thinking cost cutting and looting while the looting is good. Witness the thousands of miles of railroads that have gone out of service since 1929. Some of those roads became paved roads and highways. Others have been turned into utility lines for electricity, oil and gas, or telecom. Other rail line rights of way sit empty, not serving anyone.
Cost cutting slow or cost cutting fast is why railroads have been shrinking despite their efficiency. In the hands of short term profiteers they run off the rails and into nowhere, taking us along with them.
E. Hunter Harrison said of himself:
In 2013, describing his first few months as CEO of Canadian Pacific, he likened his progress to that of a U.S. Civil War general, saying he “kind of went through Canada maybe like Sherman went through Atlanta.”
Even his hand picked successor, James Foote said,
No wonder the CSX board of directors gave Harrison a chance even if, to quote his successor Foote, Harrison engaged in “carpet bombing” the railroad with fast-paced changes that led to widespread service failures that drew the ire of shippers and the attention of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.
That railroad baron wannabe spread his STD, that is, Surface Transportation Disorder of Precision Scheduled Railroading, PSR, from CN to Canadian Pacifice railroad and finally to CSX Transportation. We could have hoped it stopped there but no. PSR is now spreading to Union Pacific.
Here's a definition of Precision Scheduled Railroading, PSR, from Progressive Railroading
"PSR is designed to improve service reliability, boost operating efficiency and reduce network complexity by shifting the operational focus from moving trains to moving individual rail cars. The goals: minimize car dwell time and classification events, reduce locomotive requirements and balance train movements to improve crew and asset utilization."
Here's what it really means: Rip off as many people as possible for a short term gain for you and yours. E Hunter Harrison was taught that any asset or tool, including human beings, that isn't making money for you is losing money for you. So:
Fire as many employees as you can and work the remaining ones like devils.
Get rid of locomotives.
Shut down yards, especially more expensive hump yards.
Build longer trains.
Build more double decker container trains.
Grab any money that had been reserved for system upgrades to be spent on stock buybacks.
Sell off the lowest volume and lowest profit pieces of the road and just abandon the roads you don't think you can sell.
Customer service? Customers be damned.
Jack up rates until the customers are willing to pay three to five times for the cost of truck transport.
Cut back on service for all shippers, stop serving the least profitable customers entirely and don't answer the phones or emails unless there's a wreck.
The public is left with a shrunken railroad system that badly serves businesses and passengers or no longer exists at all. Precision Scheduled Railroading is nothing new. It's just short term thinking cost cutting and looting while the looting is good. Witness the thousands of miles of railroads that have gone out of service since 1929. Some of those roads became paved roads and highways. Others have been turned into utility lines for electricity, oil and gas, or telecom. Other rail line rights of way sit empty, not serving anyone.
Cost cutting slow or cost cutting fast is why railroads have been shrinking despite their efficiency. In the hands of short term profiteers they run off the rails and into nowhere, taking us along with them.
E. Hunter Harrison said of himself:
In 2013, describing his first few months as CEO of Canadian Pacific, he likened his progress to that of a U.S. Civil War general, saying he “kind of went through Canada maybe like Sherman went through Atlanta.”
Even his hand picked successor, James Foote said,
No wonder the CSX board of directors gave Harrison a chance even if, to quote his successor Foote, Harrison engaged in “carpet bombing” the railroad with fast-paced changes that led to widespread service failures that drew the ire of shippers and the attention of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.
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