Why I don't like Precision Scheduled Railroading

This short segment was taken from the first half hour of an almost 3-hour long hearing. I suggest listening to the whole thing for yourself but this short snippet explains everything wrong with PSR in my (and a lot of other people's) opinion.

S U P P O R T T H I S C H A N N E L:

S U B S C R I B E T O T H I S C H A N N E L:

M O R E T R A I N S O N O U R W E B S I T E:

C O N T A C T / B U S I N E S S:

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[michaelnotigan]

A great topic that I hope stimulates lots of conversation and views. For fans of the industry, I want to recommend 2 books to get, read and understand: "The Men Who Loved Trains" by Rush Loving, Jr and "My Life With Trains: Memoir Of A Railroader" by Jim McClellan. In a twist, both books detail the state of the RR industry up to the Conrail takeover by NS and CSX. But more importantly, both books are about seeing and making RR history through the life and eyes of one man, Jim McClellan, the vice president of Strategic Planning for Norfolk Southern.

The constant that Loving points out in his book is that there were leaders in the industry who loved the Railroad in a way we as fans might relate to. In PSR under the Harrison model, you have to have a ruthless love for profits before your railroad cause you sold your soul to wall street and the hedge fund you are fronting. We see it in those monster trains and that DPU in the middle that prePSR, was running a separate train with a separate crew whom supported separate families with that job. Or the hundreds of locos that NS sent to the deadlines, which in turn, put more pressure on those operating locomotives in service. Think I'm off base? Check out the burn marks on those GE engines going around the Horseshoe Curve these days, indicative of turbo fires. The laying off of many Juniata Locomotive Service shop cause good programs designed to put more life into servicable classes of engines were just scuttled by the new NS administration and Power Management Desk. I think the last man who subscribed to Loving's idea of loving the railroad was NS boss Wick Moorman. Since his retirement, Squires was forced to toe the wall street line.

Ron Batory, the man getting grilled there is the head of the FRA. A good railroad man. But he too was caught up in squeezing profits when as the head of Conrail Shared Assets, his railroad in South Jersey did away with the Pavonia Yard Hump and ever since then, Harrison was paying mind, as first he and now, all of them, have idled yard humps. And with it, those jobs are lost forever. All for the never ending quest of keeping wall street investors fed.

[Tegridyvs]

Only increased by 10 cars? Jesus just last week I pulled 278 cars. When has 200+ car trains ever been “normal?”

[MProductions]

People need to known that Hunter Harrison wasn't for the railroad, he was against the railroad- L&N Productions

[Henry]

Having worked for UP for nearly two decades of my life now I can say that PSR isn't a new concept. It's been implemented into the operating practices of this industry almost as long as the industry has existed to start with. Unsurprisingly the logistics and self sabotaging bureaucracy of any PSR inspired operational mode has almost universally failed throughout the entirety of the rail industry with a VERY limited few exceptions.

The reason PSR style operations exist and continue to keep trying the be re-implemented is because are driven by hedge funds and investment firms who decide they want a rapid increased return on their investments. So they start barking to upper management in the rail industry to generate some quick cash. Management throughout the industry responds by looking for "financial liabilities" to cut out of the equation which consequently leads to lower tier management and train crew numbers being slashed forcing the company to subsequently do more with less which in the process generates a rapid revenue spike to appease investors.

However in doing so chaos is unleashed throughout the industry leading to the growing concerns of industry wide instabilities and the economic impacts caused by the workforce's being slashed and operational consequences due to longer but fewer trains to serve customers. This in turn subsequently leads to market instabilities which threaten to hurt share prices and investor returns as a result. So right on cue PSR style operating modes are quietly reduced in significance to help stabilize economic and industrial concerns leading everyone to believe that the lessons of the hazards of PSR style operations has been learned. But they haven't. It's only been hushed until the next financially driven profit spike is demanded.

This pattern has repeated itself throughout the entirety of the rail industry and rest assure as long as the industry continues to exist it'll continue to resurface. Hence why every new management wave to enter the rail industry "conveniently" does the same thing at some point in their career to keep on the good side of investors and to cement their legacy as competent leaders in the rail industry as far as investment firms are concerned.

I liken it to how every time shareholders in oil companies decide they want more money oil refineries "CONVENIENTLY" start blowing up out of nowhere. Just totally and purely "CONVENIENTLY" start exploding one after another. They all were fine for years without any issue or threat and then "CONVENIENTLY" all within a year or two multiple ones suddenly all turn into time bombs waiting to go off and there's never any public explanation as to why so many in quick succession "CONVENIENTLY" started blowing up.

In any case this leads to fuel shortages which spikes up demand for gas and consequently spike up share prices as a result. This allows oil companies and investment firms to bath in record profits until the economic impacts of gas shortages and gas prices surging become too big to be ignored any longer. Then "CONVENIENTLY" oil refineries suddenly stop randomly exploding and the problems caused by it slowly fade until the next round of record profits are demanded.

"Funny" how oil refineries exploding and record profits within the oil industry always "CONVENIENTLY" occur in quick succession of one another. "Funny" how that works. Almost as "funny" as how every time PSR inspired operational modes in the rail industry are implemented, shareholders suddenly don't want to bring any attention to the steep financial returns they are receiving on their investments. "Funny"; oh so "funny" that is.

[jmpoor]

I used to work for the railroad. My typical week started Monday with a call at 1 pm for a 3 pm start. We would finally highball around 430 or 5. 75% of the time, we would reach our destination at or around 2 am, 25% we would outlaw within 5 miles of the yard. Winter it got worse. We would finally get to the hotel around 330 to 4 am . Most of the time we would end up marking off around the 12 and a half hour mark. Our train home would be ready around 12 the next day. so thats a 11 am call for 1 or 130. repeat the same trip going home with work along the way. We were classified as a road freight but we were basically a traveling switcher. So we would arrive back at the home yard around midnight, mark off around 1. then you throw in a 45 minute drive home. so I am getting home around 2ish. Take about a half an hour for myself then off to bed. Repeat 2 more times in the week. I remember a Friday trip down in January, it was snowing out and we had to take the siding for an opposing train. the siding switch is about 3/4 of a mile downhill from a 20 MPH curve. Already down to 15 MPH, its about 5 degrees at around 11pm, cab heaters are on full blast. My conductor and I woke up at the switch for the siding, train is stopped and the air is set, neither one of us remembering how we got there. I turned in my equipment to the trainmaster on the next return trip. Now they are doing it with longer trains and less rested crews.

[anb]

In order to make the railroads look good for investors, the Hunter Harrison approach is to shut down yards, fire as many people as possible, deadline hundreds of locomotives, abandon needed tracks, scrap thousands of freight cars and run THREE MILE long trains with what’s left. Basically turn the railroad into skeleton that’s supposed to supply the entire country with needed goods. The result: a massive supply chain gridlock. But hey, at least the stockholders made a few extra bucks…at the expense of empty grocery store shelves.

[DHPRODUCTIONS]

I could listen to Mr DEFAZIO all day long trashing PSR. BECAUSE HE MAKES GREAT POINTS.

[cprtrain]

PSR has been a disaster due to destroyed customer service and undermining the sustainability for the industry. At some point, the industry will blow up.

[JETZcorp]

I was listening once to a conversation between two industry guys, who had a bunch of machinery they needed shipped. I was a chauffeur at the time and had taken them out to inspect a facility. They were debating between shipping it through the Panama Canal, or paying the extra for a much faster shipment by truck. I asked why they weren't considering rail. One of the guys gave an atomic eye roll and said (paraphrasing) "Those guys. With trucking or shipping, you can guarantee your cargo will arrive on X day. On the boat it might take a month and the truck it might be 3 days, but you'll know. With rail you never know when it's going to show up. They'll park it in a yard somewhere until they've got enough stuff to build a train to the next yard. If you've got a power plant and need 4, 000 tons of coal every day, rail is great. If you've got a one-time shipment you're lucky if they don't hang up on you."

As a railfan who never understood why anybody would bother shipping long-haul with trucks, it was very eye-opening. Made me want to start a railroad that prioritizes fast scheduled freight.

[stevekalis]

Railroads need to be controlled by the people who actually run them. Engineers, brakemen/conductors, maintenance, and yardmasters, and dispatchers. Anyone else needs to be cut out of the picture. Let them do their jobs for country’s sake.

[mattmiller]

I started working for BN in 1989. 33 years later I am about to retire. In 2005 I left the back shop and went to the train yard. At that time we had five crews out on the west end inspecting coal trains. We were inspecting 20 to 25 coal trains a shift. We ran as many as 103 trains a day thru the yard. Today we are running approximately 10 to 15 coal trains a shift with three crews inspecting. If in 2005 we ran more traffic than we do now with far less tracks than we have now you would think there is something wrong. We are being run into the ground with the sole purpose of PSR and one man crews. Do not let Matt Rose tell you things are great when he and his cohorts are the problem. Give us the people give us a contract give us the equipment and get us the trains not longer one and we will solve the supply problems. This is a mismanagement problem from the top down. We ran more trains than what we run now years ago. We had locomotives and people waiting on train not trains waiting on people and power. All for the shareholders and profit this mess was created.

[heronimousbrapson]

When Harrison was at Canadian Pacific, the employees in Calgary, Alberta threatened to go on strike due to many grievances. Harrison came up with the idea of training non-union office staff to operate trains. They were to take the training on week ends. I don't know how many had ever worked on trains before. Absolute madness.

[isaiahwelch]

I'll add a fact that people have forgotten:

A train can haul 1 ton of freight 450 miles, using 1 gallon of diesel.

[peterjhillier]

There speaks the Voice of sanity. Thank for sharing AC.

[Michiganrailfan]

At 6:51 I tend to ask that question almost everyday. Each day they are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Norfolk Southern is in the worse of it right now and CEO Squires only cares about profit more than safety of the public, safety of the employees and etc. Sadly this is the best video I found of the issue and meanwhile the media seems to worship Harrison for what he did. Yeah no he deserves to rot in train hell....

[frankpearson]

PSR is killing the Industry. Please the shareholders not the Company or employees Money consumed Minds.SMFH

[penguinsfan]

PSR is the railroad version of moving manufacturing of almost everything to China and moving IT to India. Hollow out Middle America. Distort the free market economy by paying slave labor wages to overseas workers.
From what I can tell, PSR sticks it to small customers who have to turn to trucks. PSR sticks it to maintenance workers who keep the locomotives running and the freight cars rolling. PSR sticks it to conductors and engineers forcing them to drive two to three mile long trains. Can you imagine the stress involved in that? The knucklehead who runs BNSF wants one man crews.
Even the biggest customers, who have no alternative to railroads, get screwed because of delays in delivery. Double tracks become single track.
The Class 1 railroads are heading for re regulation or being split up. They deserve both. It is important that the make a profit without ignoring safety with overworked equipment and employees. This isn't a Democrat or Republican issue. It's the Swamp North (Wall Street) and Swamp South (DC) sticking it to you and me.
Wall Street investors and stock analysts have always favored short term growth, damn the future.

[lordmisanthrope]

Over 200 cars for freight trains is not normal and despite what Batory said, in the last 10 years, most freights were under 140 cars. Some of the CSX intermodals between Buffalo and Chicago were 150 cars plus but well and spine cars are relatively light compared to most other cars.

[Bbbshushrhrsux]

get rid of PSR, Bring back the caboose, and let me drink beers on a work train

[donaldfaris]

PSR hurts the customer and the field employee why do you think short lines are doing so well.