CN and CP Post Harrison?

[MarknLisa]

What changes occured at CN & CP after EHH left?  Were many of his initiatives reversed?

[Ulrich]

MarknLisa

What changes occured at CN & CP after EHH left?  Were many of his initiatives reversed?

 

 

Not reversed, but some had their hard edges softened. Case in point is EHH's hardline on discipline and terminations. His protege and successor at CP, Keith Creel, has opened the door to revisiting some of those that occurred during EHH's tenure. 

As far as I can tell (from what I read in the media and from what I can glean from the shareholder reports) most of his initiatives remain  in place and have stood the test of time. 

[daveklepper]

What about the insistance that manufacturers load or unload the same number of cars each day instead of cycles during the week, and the loss of business from those that could not adapt to this demand?

[traisessive1]

CN is still a firm believer in putting the least amount of power on a train they possibly can and then further reducing the power through throttle restrictions. 

They love running .4 hpt with AC power and .5 with DC. 

Most of our container trains run with less than 1 hpt and even have throttle restrictions. Our two highest priority intermodal trains, running loaded at 11000 feet also rarely have more than 3 units. 

It's a drag to run most of our trains but that's their operating plan. 

Here in Canada anyway, employees are being treated better under the current top brass. 

[SD70M-2Dude]

traisessive1

Here in Canada anyway, employees are being treated better under the current top brass. 

I would say the current better treatment of employees really began within the last year, although things had been improving slowly before that. 

During Claude Mongeau's tenure as CEO things on the ground were not much different than when Hunter was here.  Culture of fear, harsh discipline, you get the idea.  Harrison to Mongeau to Luc Jobin didn't seem to change things much, but what we really noticed was the appointment of Mike Cory (who started out as a labourer in the Winnipeg shops) as Chief Operating Officer. 

Before him came Jim Vena (who started as a Brakeman and Locomotive Engineer in Jasper, Alberta), who I believe had also been trying to better the treatment of employees but ran into much resistance from the rest of upper management, at least according to the rumour mill.  The same rumours stated that Vena grew tired of arguing with a brick wall and that influenced his decision to retire. 

We are also getting to the point in time where many Hunter-era middle or upper level managers are starting to retire (or get fired in at least one case, au revoir Boom-Boom), and that has also influenced the directives filtering down to local front-line management personnel.