Railroading Legend Sits Down for First Podcast | Keith Creel

Keith Creel became the President and CEO of Canadian Pacific in 2017, giving him executive control of one of the largest Class 1 rail systems in North America, with more than 13,000 miles of rail network stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 2021 he helped broker a deal that marked the first major merger in the railroad industry in the U.S. in two decades, and created the first freight rail network linking Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Creel calls on nearly a decade of experience working with the Canadian Pacific Railway to discuss his strategies for leadership and how he’s turned the company around over five years in charge. Creel discusses all you need to know about the rail industry and how it affects our daily lives, what changes he sees coming in the future for the industry, how he thinks about leadership in times of change, and how Canadian Pacific secured a $27 billion deal to take over its rival, Kansas City Southern.

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00:00 - Intro
01:08 - What people misunderstand about rails
01:43 - Rails vs. trucks
04:00 - Creel’s thoughts on driverless trucks
05:36 - Why we don’t have driverless trains
06:53 - Why don’t trains move faster than they do
09:30 - On precision scheduled railroading
17:02 - Tradeoffs between efficiency and resiliency
21:40 - How rail companies deal with clients
25:05 - How rails deal with varying capacities
27:40 - The future of rails and where they’ll go
32:14 - Why don’t rails own the terminals
33:30 - Canada Pacific’s system for executing plans
36:24 - What Creel learned from Hunter Harrison (a rail legend)
45:24 - Setting examples as a leader
54:18 - What Creel learned from Bill Ackman
01:01:55 - The complete story of the Kansas City Southern decision

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Like the mentor you’ve always dreamed of having, The Knowledge Project shares timely yet timeless lessons for work and life. Past guests include Naval Ravikant, Daniel Kahneman, Jim Collins, Angela Duckworth, Seth Godin, Melanie Mitchell, & Esther Perel.

[cprtrain]

He comes across as a very smart CEO who will now lead CPKC.

[gaDragonsBreath]

It's your moment to shine Mr Creel, your in control of something that could turn into the best Railroad Going or the laughing stock of the Railroad Industry. It all boils down to what you've learnt from your past experiences managing other past Railroads. Take heed young man it wouldn't hurt to study up on how these other giant Railroads are getting on, and being on a high horse is all cool and dandy, but knowing when to get off your CEO high-horse and mingle though your employees showing respect and gratitude to the guy at the bottom all the way up to the guy right under neath you. They'll work harder for you knowing your a genuine real leader than brow beating them into submission scaring them to work for you. Once they see your proud of them, they'll work their living asses off just to show you they appreciate what you've put together as a bigger than life Railroad for them to work and be part of. Yes, their proud of what you've done it's just they want to be part of the glory also.

All the Americans are trying to put Railroads together going east and west, were as you put a huge Railroad together going north & south, bravo man, splendid thinking Keith what you and the X CEO of KCS put together. Yes your smart, but bring your employees with you on the stage and you'll see the glory in full view.

[Kevin]

the man could run any business and be successful. Very intelligent and articulate, very well done.

[bobjohnson]

@9:36 "Long, big and heavy". 'Uphill slow, downhill fast, profits first and safety last.' 🤨

[JohnDoe-tdcd]

As someone who has read Howard Green's book on Hunter Harrison and PSR, thank you Mr. Creel for sharing those insights; very valuable interview which makes me proud to be a shareholder of CP!

[BradKaellner]

I know more about railroads now than I ever thought I would 🤯

[GC-xz]

Loved this interview. One of the best!

[draytonblackgrove]

He has to be the most-transparent CEO out there.

[kanchoo]

It's interesting from a running trades perspective to see how he knows about a lot of the limitations about psr and yet they keep doing it, without fixing any of the issues and just forcing it through, which does not work. Running excessively long trains which break apart easier, block crossings for hours and hours at a time because the huge size makes fixing it take way longer, not increasing the size of sidings/ yard tracks forcing massive delays to multiple other trains/crews at the same time waiting for the huge one to get out of the way. Increasing possible derailment disasters having way more dangerous goods on a single train and vastly increasing stopping distance / amount that derails when a derailment occurs. Maxing out locomotives to the point the trains stall out on hills way more often causing massive delays and overworking locomotives to the point of regular breakdowns. Creating the right culture from harrison...he was an absolute sociopath that made every railway he helmed run through fear and intimidation, cut all aspects including safety and maintenance down to the marrow, and literally ruined thousands and thousands of lives totally and completely unnecessarily. A true monster. The only thing psr and hunter was good for was the shareholders and only in the short term. All the railways he helmed are reaping what they sowed now trying to recover in all aspects from his damage. I'm not saying he didn't do some good but went way way WAY overboard in almost every single way.

[mltlawyer]

Great conversation. Thanks for the post.

[viscount]

Opening thumbnail - Canadian Pacific, not Canada Pacific.

[Holidaykills]

Im glad im not hunter or creel, they destroyed thousands of RR families cutting to the bone, all the employees moving the nation's freight is who they targeted to fire. He mentions all the bad investigation they got wrong. And then he mentions hes hired more than ever before.

[shawn-uucs]

Safety is last. They used to have what is called home safe. That’s out the window and for injured workers they don’t care till the job gets done