News Wire: Watch for changes coming to Union Pacific's Chicago intermodal operations

[Brian Schmidt]

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Watch for major changes to Union Pacific's Chicago-based intermodal operations this month. Rumors are already swirling about specific traffic shifts and operations changes, but the only definite details available come from a ...

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/07/02-watch-for-changes-coming-to-union-pacifics-chicago-operations

[SD70Dude]

No more humping at Proviso eh?  Say it ain't so!

[zardoz]

SD70Dude

No more humping at Proviso eh?  Say it ain't so!

 

I wonder what Carl will have to say about that idea. Cripes, next thing you know the UP will sell Proviso; I suppose the land would be worth a few bucks.

[Deggesty]

I retired going on 13 years ago. Five or six years ago, the company made a decision that involved either retooling the entire plant or closing the plant. Since the main plant, in South Portland, Maine, had already retooled, it was decided that the plant here would be closed. What can I say? I am glad that I had retired. Perhaps that is what Carl will say. 

[CShaveRR]

Yes, for this and other reasons, I'm glad I retired when I did.  I think that being a "ground-pounder" would be too much like work, with too much that could go wrong and too many people watching me.  Up in the towers, for better or for worse, my work spoke for itself.

The classification yard, at least at the west end, was completely surrounded by Global 2 facilities.  I think I have an idea what will eventually happen.  I just hope they have no regrets after it's too late.

By the way, I'd heard July 8, not 1, as the closing date.

[jeffhergert]

CShaveRR

Yes, for this and other reasons, I'm glad I retired when I did.  I think that being a "ground-pounder" would be too much like work, with too much that could go wrong and too many people watching me.  Up in the towers, for better or for worse, my work spoke for itself.

The classification yard, at least at the west end, was completely surrounded by Global 2 facilities.  I think I have an idea what will eventually happen.  I just hope they have no regrets after it's too late.

By the way, I'd heard July 8, not 1, as the closing date.

 

It'll be a rousing success, even if it isn't.

There was a rumor of them leasing out the operation of Proviso to a third party.

Jeff

[zardoz]

jeffhergert

It'll be a rousing success, even if it isn't. There was a rumor of them leasing out the operation of Proviso to a third party.

I cannot help but wonder about the future of railroads in this country. With PSR souring the taste of shipping by rail for those few remaining customers that do not ship in unit trains, what will be left? Railroads are going to turn into nothing but slow moving 300-car unoccupied land-barge trains plodding along at 25mph.

In the next year or so, when the tarrifs and trade wars decimate our economy and the next recession hits, IM trains will dwindle to a shadow of what they are now. Perhaps coal will come back; with the economy in ruins, no one is going to be concerned about a little trifle like climate change.

Perhaps the execs at U.P. really are making the correct decisions.

[caldreamer]

Zardoz:

  BUT, then there is BNSF, who will not go to PSR.  As Matt Rose said in a recent interview that "Serving the customer is the first priority of a railroad".

   Caldreamer

 

[Deggesty]

caldreamer

Zardoz:

  BUT, then there is BNSF, who will not go to PSR.  As Matt Rose said in a recent interview that "Serving the customer is the first priority of a railroad".

   Caldreamer

 

 

Exactly; why else should a railroad exist if it does not want to serve its customers; indeed, how long can it exist if it does not serve its customers?

[tree68]

Deggesty

Exactly; why else should a railroad exist if it does not want to serve its customers; indeed, how long can it exist if it does not serve its customers?

This appears to be of little import to "activist investors" whose chief concern is their own pocketbook.