I read something that reminded me that the BNSF merger was 12 years ago. When NYC and PRR merged they went down the tubes. When UP merged SP they had a meltdown. By comparison, did the merger of BN and ATSF go through considerably smoother without any similar kind of downfall?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Name change to shorter BNSF was in 2005, but the actual merger was Dec. 31, 1996. See:
http://trn.trains.com/railroads/railroad-history/2006/06/bnsf-railway-merger-family-tree
- PDN.
They had their issues ... most were internalized and were not in the newz headlines.
- One of Chico's Orphans
Paul_D_North_Jr Name change to shorter BNSF was in 2005, but the actual merger was Dec. 31, 1996. See: http://trn.trains.com/railroads/railroad-history/2006/06/bnsf-railway-merger-family-tree - PDN.
Murphy SidingI read something that reminded me that the BNSF merger was 12 years ago. . . .
I think a lot depends on how the merger comes to be. ATSF+BN was planned by both sides and was equal, while PC and UP+SP were more 'take overs' where the PRR effectively took over the NYC and UP took over the SP, leading to dueling managements which were very noticable on the PC.
A major challenge of any railroad merger since the 1960s has been how to integrate the computer systems, this is a make-it-or-break-it issue. The Penn Central merger and Conrail split (at least the NS side) both failed at this, with disastrous results.
Railroad history is littered with merger plans that crashed and burned, but the BNSF merger seems to have gone quite smoothly by comparison.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Somewhere in Trains in the last 10 years there was an article about the 1970 +/-GN + NP + CB&Q + SP&S merger, and how the officials involved worked to make it smooth after the PC debacle. Unfortunately, I can't find a citation to it in the Magazine Index.
The NYC - PRR merger also had the NH stuffed into it by the ICC on December 31st, 1968 which add to its woes.
Those of us who like my husband were Santa Fe fans at first called the BNSF the Bigger New Santa Fe as all the leadership roles were filled by old Santa Fe leaders. Motive power stayed DC for a bit also instead of getting AC44's they went back for over 1K more D-44-9's. Or as my husband said in the late 90's you could not swing a dead cat at a BNSF train without hitting a Dash 9 for power. Cars are still painted in Mineral red the old Santa Fe car color. They also were an end to end merger for the most part. UP and SP well you had UP that had just swallowed up CNW and was having heartburn from that small meal then they decided to eat the largest railroad west of the Mississippi left for a main course and one that was in bad need of everything. Then they fired or forced out everyone that knew how to keep the system running and it was look out. BNSF took their time to make sure everything would go smoother. For the most part it did they had a couple hickups but nothing major.
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