NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk Southern will adopt Precision Scheduled Railroading principles as it develops a new operating plan that aims to produce better service at lower cost. The decision, announced today, comes a month after Union Pacific said ...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/10/24-norfolk-southern-to-adopt-precision-scheduled-railroading-operating-principles
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Everybody adopting the PSR buzzword BS in response to Wall Streets gullibility.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Compared to where both CN and CP started, Norfolk Southern with an operating ratio of 66.4 through September 2018 is much closer to the hallowed PSR number of "sub-60" operating ratio. Hopefully it won't be too disruptive. One concern is Juniata shops - hopefully all their expenses get capitalized into the asset value of the "like-new" locomotives those highly-skilled artisans are creating every day. That would keep the expenses out of the operating ratio and hopefully mean they would be able to continue their diesel locomotive version of the old TV show "American Chopper".
Taking a clean sheet of paper to the yard and local work is a good start. It'll allow more pre-blocking, and NS really needs reliable, realistic local schedules to allow their movement planner to work properly. It'll help improve the network car velocity.
But, NS's problem isn't lack of plan velocity. It's the gap between the current plan and actual. It's been nearly two years and they're still a long way away from proper train speed and dwell.
Also, the transportation planning department is so skinny these days, I don't know if they have enough folk to do the "clean sheet" work and keep things limping along.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
Are the customers looking forward to PSR? I doubt many are.
I suspect that from the investor's point of view, P$R is more like it.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
But didn't NS just report a record quarter? And they did it wihout PSR. (one factor in the record is likely picking up a lot of CSX cast-offs.)
Throwing away customers (via PSR) is not a viable long-term strategy.
rrnut282But didn't NS just report a record quarter? And they did it wihout PSR. (one factor in the record is likely picking up a lot of CSX cast-offs.)
"Official" PSR. Believe me, many aspects of PSR are already and have been implemented.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
tree68I suspect that from the investor's point of view, P$R is more like it.
PSR is a buzzword Wall Street wants to hear railroad CEO's utter, irrespective of the real actions taken.
I like how one put it on another forum. Precision Stock Manipulation.
It isn't about record profits. It's about wringing every single penny possible out of a company and sending it to the investors. Especially those investors who's long term outlook is the end of the present quarter.
Fred Frailey's blog had something about "Hunter's triumph from the grave." Yes, EHH delivered short term money, but I seem to read how the railroads he was at now have to undo some of EHH's actions. He left very little, if any, room for growth.
Jeff
jeffhergertI like how one put it on another forum. Precision Stock Manipulation. It isn't about record profits. It's about wringing every single penny possible out of a company and sending it to the investors. Especially those investors who's long term outlook is the end of the present quarter. Fred Frailey's blog had something about "Hunter's triumph from the grave." Yes, EHH delivered short term money, but I seem to read how the railroads he was at now have to undo some of EHH's actions. He left very little, if any, room for growth. Jeff
EHH's purpose was not to grow the railroads he managed, it was to liberate every possible penny and remit all those pennies to the Hedge Funds that controlled him.
YoHo1975Being in the Software dev business. I think of PSR as akin to Development Lifecycle trends. For many years Software used the waterfall method of development which became very rigid and impractical. Then along came Agile which was very good for small fast teams, but fell apart on bigger projects. Now we have DevOps which takes many of the principles of Agile and applies them to different scenarios where Agile simply can't work. I would imagine NS is doing something similar with PSR. Look at what works, what doesn't/can't and figuring out what a good solution might be. Of course this doesn't garuntee success/competence, but it's probably a good way to work through it.
Railroads - all of them - continually look at their operations to see what is working and what is not and adjiusting the operation of their company from the observations that they see. A process that has been taking place since the laying of the First Stone of the B&O on July 4, 1828. EHH hung the buzzword 'Precision Schedule Railroading' to it and 'rang a bell' with the Wall Street psyche and they have fallen in love with every saying they are installing PSR. Railroads beholding to every sniffle of Wall Street are on the PSR bandwagon. Haven't heard BNSF talking about PSR - they are running their property and don't have to blow anything up Wall Steet's skirt.
BaltACDRailroads - all of them - continually look at their operations to see what is working and what is not and adjiusting the operation of their company from the observations that they see
Unless it means they have to admit a mistake. Then they will double down.
zugmann BaltACD Railroads - all of them - continually look at their operations to see what is working and what is not and adjiusting the operation of their company from the observations that they see Unless it means they have to admit a mistake. Then they will double down.
BaltACD Railroads - all of them - continually look at their operations to see what is working and what is not and adjiusting the operation of their company from the observations that they see
They just take the normal path of covering it up - just like a cat covers it droppings. Admit nothing and cover it up. Cover ups have worked so well in society for Nixon et. al.
BaltACD . . . EHH hung the buzzword 'Precision Schedule Railroading' to it and 'rang a bell' with the Wall Street psyche and they have fallen in love with every saying they are installing PSR. Railroads beholding to every sniffle of Wall Street are on the PSR bandwagon. Haven't heard BNSF talking about PSR - they are running their property and don't have to blow anything up Wall Steet's skirt.
- PDN.
Paul_D_North_Jr BaltACD . . . EHH hung the buzzword 'Precision Schedule Railroading' to it and 'rang a bell' with the Wall Street psyche and they have fallen in love with every saying they are installing PSR. Railroads beholding to every sniffle of Wall Street are on the PSR bandwagon. Haven't heard BNSF talking about PSR - they are running their property and don't have to blow anything up Wall Steet's skirt. See the article on Matt Rose's pending retirement in this month's issue of Trains. It makes clear that he, BNSF, and Berkshire Hathaway are in the business for the long run. Not stated but implied is that they have no interest in saying they're adopting PSR. - PDN.
See the article on Matt Rose's pending retirement in this month's issue of Trains. It makes clear that he, BNSF, and Berkshire Hathaway are in the business for the long run. Not stated but implied is that they have no interest in saying they're adopting PSR.
In as much as they are not on the next quarter reporting cycle - BNSF can think and act long term. Those on the Wall Street merry-go-round can only look to the next quarter.
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