A local CSX employee told me that CSX is re-opening three hump yards, one of them being Avon. I think this may have also been reported on "trainorders".
Ed
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Ya gotta laugh...
Amazin' ain't it! I coulda made a better mess for a lot less money!
Ed
Anybody want to elaborate on why this is funny, and give a little background?
colorado hirailer posted:Anybody want to elaborate on why this is funny, and give a little background?
Yeah me Too, I'd like to know some more, as I heard this yesterday from a laid off CSX Railroad friend.....I thought it sounded good, more people back to work...
It's because a man named Harrison got millions to run CSX. One of the things he did was shut down all the hump yards at once. The railroad is almost at a standstill now. He still gets his money.
It would not have to sound good, employees returning, if a hedge fund had not taken over CSX. NO ONE WOULD HAVE LOST THEIR JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE. And that's how it should have gone. I personally thought CSX was on the cusp of success in the near future. IMO, the money grubbers have ruined all this.
There are nine hump yards still shut down. And, when they do start up, I've heard it will be expensive, because when they were shut down, much of the equipment used to run a hump operation was removed, and some even discarded.
I've also heard that any excuse is used to fire an employee. Just another way of what he, Harrison, calls excess.
Ed
I find it funny because about two months ago the BIG PLAN to streamline CSX into a "scheduled railroad" called for closing all but two of their hump yards. Since then CSX has entered full-blown meltdown mode with complaints from almost every customer. Trains are stopped all over the system, yards are plugged, dwell time has skyrocketed and average car speed over the road is approaching 11 mph...an all-time low. They have already lost significant business to NS and trucks and the meltdown continues. Hunter Harrison has had to publish two lengthy letters to the Feds "explaining" why the customers are wrong and to just be patient.
So now the answer is to re-open a couple of the just-closed hump yards? LOL!
Here is EHH's most recent letter:
CSX CEO Harrison Fires Back at Critics
CSX Corp. CEO E. Hunter Harrison issued a stark rebuke of complaints about poor service, sending a scathing letter to a coalition of rail shippers, lawmakers in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and regulators at the Surface Transportation Board.
Harrison, the 72-year-old railroad veteran, implemented a concept called precision railroading to turn around Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., but his tenure since joining CSX in March has been rocky. Service problems began in May and continued through summer, according to weekly performance data submitted to the federal government.
Shippers and third-party logistics firms have said that some of their freight was up to four weeks late without explanation. The coalition added that CSX’s customer service has been “woefully inadequate.”
The Rail Customer Coalition, consisting of more than 40 railroad shippers, previously called on the Surface Transportation Board and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to investigate the problems. The coalition includes shippers in the petrochemical, steel, lumber, agricultural, and food and beverage industries.
“This has put rail-dependent business operations throughout the U.S. at risk of shutting down, caused severe bottlenecks in the delivery of key goods and services, and has put the health of our nation’s economy in jeopardy,” the group wrote Aug. 14 to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
However, Harrison responded two days later that he was “greatly disappointed” in the “many unfounded and grossly exaggerated statements” that the coalition communicated to lawmakers and regulators. He took umbrage with the fact that the coalition “did not extend us the courtesy of discussing those concerns with [CSX]” and that the complaints are merely part of a “longstanding attack” on the issue of reciprocal switching, a hot-button regulatory issue that has pitted shippers versus railroad carriers for more than a year.
“Since coalitions do not have service issues, we do not intend to continue a discussion with you about the service we provide our customers. We are also aware that not all members of your coalition were informed of your letter [to Congress] in advance and some do not agree with your position,” Harrison wrote.
Scott Jensen, a spokesman for the Rail Customer Coalition, told Transport Topics that there was a broad agreement among its members and that the coalition did talk with CSX before sending the Aug. 14 letter.
“Furthermore, these service issues have not gone away, which is evident by the fact that the Surface Transportation Board was compelled to send a second letter to CSX earlier expressing concerns with the ‘widespread degradation of rail service’ across its network,” Jensen wrote in a statement.
Stephens Inc. released a survey finding that 60% of shippers haven’t been provided with a timeline of when service levels will return to normal. The survey also found that shippers were willing to move as much as a third of their freight away from CSX until the situation improved.
“As it relates to who could pick up this market share, 48% said NSC [Norfolk Southern], 39% said a truck and 13% said other railroads/modes. In summary, it is clear that the near-term market share shifts could be meaningful,” wrote Brad Delco, an analyst with Stephens.
On a scale of 1 to 10, shippers on average gave CSX a 6.6 for service before Hunter Harrison arrived earlier this year, but the number has now plummeted to 2.3. Norfolk Southern’s current service levels were rated a 6.9.
“This is an unmitigated disaster. Harrison has no regard for the customer. While his model does promote efficiencies, these come at the expense of customers,” one shipper told Stephens.
“Hunter Harrison has never been a customer-first RR [railroad] executive. The harm he has done our business is beyond compare,” another stated.
When asked whether Harrison’s implementation of precision railroading — the root cause of the delays — would eventually lead to better service in the long term, 51% said maybe, 42% said no and only 7% said yes.
CSX also announced Aug. 22 that it would change the way it calculates train velocity, terminal dwell times and cars online in an effort, the company stated, to more accurately reflect the operational performance.
“CSX is transitioning to Precision Scheduled Railroading, which focuses heavily on service to customers and asset utilization,” Harrison said. “These revised service metrics give us a more accurate understanding of how we are performing and where there are additional opportunities for improvement.”
The revised data show the average dwell time improved from 11.8 hours a year ago to 11.6 hours, but train car velocity dropped from 15.6 mph to 13.1 year-over-year for the week ending Aug. 18. The on-time origination percentage dropped to 67% from 86%, and on-time arrivals fell to 50% from 75% in mid-August 2016.
The local CSX branch has five customers, two power plants, two rock runners (one of them brand new) and a lumber company. There is power, freight to haul, but a lack of conductors (perhaps only one in the pool) so the supporting yard is filling up, the engineers ****ed and the customers getting more and more upset.
Today, on one of the nearby mains, I watched a long auto rack speed by at 60+. About 2/3rds down the train a bearing was producing blue/black smoke that smelled like cut metal. I called the CSX emergency number to report.
There is a steelmill in south carolina that is very close to shutting down.Where I live by the csx that goes from monroe to balstic in n.c.There are some industries along this line.They have cut service to some or these industries.All that left is plastic manufacting plants.Which is just three.Csx has become the laughing stock of the railroad world.Get rid of hunter and get some one who knows what they are doing.
OGR Webmaster posted:I find it funny because about two months ago the BIG PLAN to streamline CSX into a "scheduled railroad" called for closing all but two of their hump yards. Since then CSX has entered full-blown meltdown mode with complaints from almost every customer. Trains are stopped all over the system, yards are plugged, dwell time has skyrocketed and average car speed over the road is approaching 11 mph...an all-time low. They have already lost significant business to NS and trucks and the meltdown continues. Hunter Harrison has had to publish two lengthy letters to the Feds "explaining" why the customers are wrong and to just be patient.
So now the answer is to re-open a couple of the just-closed hump yards? LOL!
Whats to explain he does not know what he is doing.And this is the results lets see.He got rid of a lot of his work force.Lost a lot of customers that they most likely will not get back.I have seen trains that are greatly under power.I am talking about trains that have only 2 locomotives.Pulling a train that is 2 miles long.Going about going down the main line about 25 mph.And I think CSX had a good thing going.Consider the way when they first started out.Well that gone down the drain.
Maybe Harrison will do a better job once there is a lot of snow on the ground. That would make it more like Canada.
Kent in SD
Lets see. When UP closed Strang Yard in the Houston area, it was one of the things which started the epic fail meltdown after the SP merger. That was just one small yard.
Some yards on CSX might need to be closed. But do a few at a time.
Now the US railroads has a new issues coming from the South. Survey says: HARVEY!
Interesting times.
Did Harrison go to the McGinnis school of railroading?
Rumor has it that he's taking things literally and the yards will only operate on Wednesday. 
How tomorrow moves.... or next week.... ehhhh, eventually.
But wait as there's more!!
