This is coming up one week from today. As I understand it, the shippers and consignees will tell their individual stories before the three STB board members. I am assuming each one gets a certain amount of time to tell what happened to them as each experience will be different. At some point during the meeting, CSX will tell their side of the story also. I have some questions;
1) Am I right about the above?
2) At the end of the meeting, will the STB board members take all they have heard and render some decision about CSX refunding money, or some other kind of punitive action?
3) Will there be some interval of time between when the board hears the evidence and when they make a decision? If so, how long?
I appreciate all answers I get, but I would especially like to hear from those of you that might have gone through this before.
Don't get your hopes up, nothing major will come of it.
An "expensive model collector"
Methinks a lot will depend on whether the STB buys into the "it's a work in process" line that CSX will likely throw out.
Depending on how much of what the shippers and other customers of CSX say makes it through to the point where STB can ask some specific questions, it could get messy (for CSX), or not.
We can perhaps hope that STB exhibits some of the same incredulity we've expressed here regarding EHH's (or his handler's) plans for "precision railroading."
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...
So CSX is somewhere in between?
I wouldn't expect the STB to act in any significant fashion until the point is reached where service is not improving by the end of the 3rd quarter at the earliest. If CSX is able to show improved performance by the end of the 3rd quarter, like most previous service meltdowns since deregulation, the STB is unlikely to act in a way that would significantly change the landscape.
That's not to say CSX's service levels will be fully returned to at least around where they were previously by the end of September, but in the News Wire today we read that metrics are beginning to improve - a real help for CSX's case, which is, "please pardon the dust".
The STB doesn't move very fast, and I think they realize that occasional meltdowns, expecially weather related, are to be expected. Not that it completely excuses the huge mess EHH has created, but ultimately they're not very active regulators and have proven more than willing to let the railroads sort it out themselves if they prove up to the task.
Those around for it will recall that it was quite awhile before the STB decided to act in UP's mid-90s collapse. And even then it was limited and rather quickly set back to normal once the railroad showed up to handling itself. So thus far in its history, the STB has also shown that it doesn't aim to even change much, and that its goals in these situations tend to be repair and return to normal, not forcing network changes, line sales, etc.
I think this is also part of why the STB hasn't done much to enterain recipercal switching: they think the current systems work, and so like with any future Mega Mergers they want proof that it will benefit everybody: a very hard task to prove in a theoretical sense, as the status quo is innocent until proven guilty.
That is the foundation of regulation laid forth by the Staggers Act. Be grateful for it, because it could be a thousand times worse for the health of our industry.
tree68Methinks a lot will depend on whether the STB buys into the "it's a work in process" line that CSX will likely throw out. Depending on how much of what the shippers and other customers of CSX say makes it through to the point where STB can ask some specific questions, it could get messy (for CSX), or not. We can perhaps hope that STB exhibits some of the same incredulity we've expressed here regarding EHH's (or his handler's) plans for "precision railroading."
A lot depends on they shills that CSX sends to plead their case and whether they buy into the EHH bovine excrement storm. I can bet that anyone that actually knows what it takes to operate CSX won't be the shills. Suspect they will be EHH cronies trying to blow smoke to anyone that doesn't have enough knowledge to see through it.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Will Hurricane Irma give CSX an excuse to claim it is all about the weather ?
blue streak 1Will Hurricane Irma give CSX an excuse to claim it is all about the weather ?
Depends on how it affects Florida, Georgia and the Carolina's. Suspect Tri-Rail will shut down WPB to Miami tomorrow or Saturday. Suspect the A line from Rocky Mount South is subject to being shut down Sunday or Monday.
WASHINGTON — With Hurricane Irma tracking toward Florida, federal regulators late Wednesday decided postpone the listening session that was scheduled for Sept. 12 regarding service disruptions on CSX Transportation. “The board understand...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2017/09/07-stb-csx-postponed
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Well NARP is going to represent railroad passengers at the STB listining session so i may not have to go.
Among those indicating that they planned on participating:
Feature all the hot air from EHH and his minions will blow Irma well out to sea.
CSX cuts management, unionized workers
The Times Union (Online) (Albany, NY) By Eric Anderson September 7, 2017 CSX, which operates a massive railyard in Selkirk, told analysts this week that it's "ahead of pace" in reducing the number of people working on the railroad. Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX said it had reduced its workforce by 3,700 since the beginning of the year, including the elimination of "over 1,000" contractors and consultants. Total workforce in the third quarter of the year number 24,600. Its adoption of new CEO E. Hunter Harrison's "precision railroading," in which trains operate on fixed schedules, equipment is used more efficiently, leading to reduced costs, and trains operate safely, enabled CSX to reduce its unionized workforce by 7 percent since Jan. 1, it told analysts at Cowen and Company's 10th annual Global Transportation Conference. The presentation was earlier this week. CSX said its trains also have grown in length, to an average of 6,855 feet in the third quarter from 6,560 feet in the first quarter. A new system map presented at the conference also shows that the hump yard at Selkirk, which sorts individual rail cars using gravity, is no longer being transitioned to a flat switching operation, where groups of cars are sorted by locomotives. But analysts were told the railroad envisions having just two to four hump yards, down from five now operating. The job impact of such a move isn't clear, but earlier this year, when CSX was closing other hump yards, job losses typically were in the dozens. CSX also plans to consolidate railroad dispatching operations in Jacksonville, which will shift 36 workers from Albany. The changes haven't gone smoothly, by some accounts. The Surface Transportation Board had scheduled a public session to discuss service complaints by shippers with CSX for Tuesday. That has now been postponed because of Hurricane Irma.
By Eric Anderson
September 7, 2017
CSX, which operates a massive railyard in Selkirk, told analysts this week that it's "ahead of pace" in reducing the number of people working on the railroad. Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX said it had reduced its workforce by 3,700 since the beginning of the year, including the elimination of "over 1,000" contractors and consultants.
Total workforce in the third quarter of the year number 24,600.
Its adoption of new CEO E. Hunter Harrison's "precision railroading," in which trains operate on fixed schedules, equipment is used more efficiently, leading to reduced costs, and trains operate safely, enabled CSX to reduce its unionized workforce by 7 percent since Jan. 1, it told analysts at Cowen and Company's 10th annual Global Transportation Conference. The presentation was earlier this week.
CSX said its trains also have grown in length, to an average of 6,855 feet in the third quarter from 6,560 feet in the first quarter.
A new system map presented at the conference also shows that the hump yard at Selkirk, which sorts individual rail cars using gravity, is no longer being transitioned to a flat switching operation, where groups of cars are sorted by locomotives. But analysts were told the railroad envisions having just two to four hump yards, down from five now operating.
The job impact of such a move isn't clear, but earlier this year, when CSX was closing other hump yards, job losses typically were in the dozens.
CSX also plans to consolidate railroad dispatching operations in Jacksonville, which will shift 36 workers from Albany.
The changes haven't gone smoothly, by some accounts. The Surface Transportation Board had scheduled a public session to discuss service complaints by shippers with CSX for Tuesday.
That has now been postponed because of Hurricane Irma.
Saturnalia I wouldn't expect the STB to act in any significant fashion until the point is reached where service is not improving by the end of the 3rd quarter at the earliest. If CSX is able to show improved performance by the end of the 3rd quarter, like most previous service meltdowns since deregulation, the STB is unlikely to act in a way that would significantly change the landscape. That's not to say CSX's service levels will be fully returned to at least around where they were previously by the end of September, but in the News Wire today we read that metrics are beginning to improve - a real help for CSX's case, which is, "please pardon the dust". The STB doesn't move very fast, and I think they realize that occasional meltdowns, expecially weather related, are to be expected. Not that it completely excuses the huge mess EHH has created, but ultimately they're not very active regulators and have proven more than willing to let the railroads sort it out themselves if they prove up to the task. Those around for it will recall that it was quite awhile before the STB decided to act in UP's mid-90s collapse. And even then it was limited and rather quickly set back to normal once the railroad showed up to handling itself. So thus far in its history, the STB has also shown that it doesn't aim to even change much, and that its goals in these situations tend to be repair and return to normal, not forcing network changes, line sales, etc. I think this is also part of why the STB hasn't done much to enterain recipercal switching: they think the current systems work, and so like with any future Mega Mergers they want proof that it will benefit everybody: a very hard task to prove in a theoretical sense, as the status quo is innocent until proven guilty. That is the foundation of regulation laid forth by the Staggers Act. Be grateful for it, because it could be a thousand times worse for the health of our industry.
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