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Enron Type Mentality in Today's Railroading

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It seems to me that 34 years after the collapse of the Penn Central Railroad, along with the Lehigh Valley, today's top railroad executives still don't get the lessons still to be learned from the collapse of Penn Central. Just look at the service meltdowns that Union Pacific is once again beginning to experience. That railroad's top brass does not seem to have learned the lesson from what happened when they digested Southern Pacific, a largely single track railroad into the Union Pacific. Result was a service meltdown that made those suffered by Penn Central during its first year of operation, seem minor by comparison. Well, UP wasn't losing entire trains or individual carloads of freight throughout its system, but shippers were plenty mad and some still are. UP, as well as the other railroads have cut staffing so much that they have more trains to run than they have crews for.. It seems to me that railroading is a profession for railroaders who KNOW THE BUSINESS, not some Wall STreet types or fresh MBAs who think they know it all. It is still possible that hijinks with the books are still going on at at least some railroads and they have not yet got caught like Penn Central was. It is time for the railroads to be put back in the hands of professional railroaders who know both the operational as well as the business aspects of the profession, something today's railroad executives seem to be missing, with a few exceptions. The Bottom Line should not be the only thing that matters, the safety and reliability of the service, the well being of the crews, proper maintenance all should be part of the equation. Too much corner cutting as now seems to be done has a way of coming up and biting you on your you know what, usually in the form of a catastrophic accident. Railroad employees can best empower themselves by buying enough stock in their companies and giving the Wall sTreeters now in charge the boot and replace them with professional railroaders who know the business. Then and only then can the meltdowns at Union Pacific that are affecting other railroads be brought to an end. Part of it is the result of too much track being torn up. Also lines that have been reduced from double to single track should never have been single tracked to begin with, given the growing demands on the rail system. There are some lines from which track is now gone that should be restored to service so that the affected railroad has alternative routes to fall back on in case a primary route is blocked by a derailment. The goal should be to keep the passengers and freight moving rather than cutting corners and mileage that may be needed later.
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