Trains.com

BNSF in Terminal Meltdown?

3724 views
26 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    November 2021
  • 211 posts
BNSF in Terminal Meltdown?
Posted by JayBee on Saturday, July 9, 2022 6:42 PM

Reportedly BNSF is in critical meltdown in SE California. It has been reported that many crews in Needles, CA have walked off the job after a dispute with local officials. The same source reported that 214 trains are tied down between Chicago and Barstow. BNSF has chartered private jets to move crews to try and get things moving again.

  • Member since
    June 2003
  • From: South Central,Ks
  • 7,170 posts
Posted by samfp1943 on Saturday, July 9, 2022 9:45 PM

JayBee

Reportedly BNSF is in critical meltdown in SE California. It has been reported that many crews in Needles, CA have walked off the job after a dispute with local officials. The same source reported that 214 trains are tied down between Chicago and Barstow. BNSF has chartered private jets to move crews to try and get things moving again.

 

  Saturday, PM 07/.09  here at a starting point of the Soutern T-con...Last train thru here today was a couple of Eastbnds this morning....Also, so far this evening... NADA!  ( Usually, about this time of day, there have been several!)  Next yard would be Wellington, Ks.. have not checked there... (Here) This is officially, Main #3 of Eldorado Sub....North side of Mulvane, Ks.   Must be something to the reports....  

  Several places East of here that they use to 'tie down' trains (Start over East) at around Augsta,Ks. possibly Cottonwood Falls, and then [pick a likely spot) Whistling   From the South, start around Arkansas City, and then just pick some empty track.. The Wchita Area(Broadway) Yard (North side)?   

 

 


 

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 8,217 posts
Posted by Euclid on Sunday, July 10, 2022 11:26 AM

JayBee

Reportedly BNSF is in critical meltdown in SE California. It has been reported that many crews in Needles, CA have walked off the job after a dispute with local officials. The same source reported that 214 trains are tied down between Chicago and Barstow. BNSF has chartered private jets to move crews to try and get things moving again.

 

What is being disputed?

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,274 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, July 10, 2022 12:26 PM

Euclid
 
JayBee

Reportedly BNSF is in critical meltdown in SE California. It has been reported that many crews in Needles, CA have walked off the job after a dispute with local officials. The same source reported that 214 trains are tied down between Chicago and Barstow. BNSF has chartered private jets to move crews to try and get things moving again. 

What is being disputed?

Since I have no knowledge.

I will take a WAG that it has to do the BNSF attendance policies and how they are or are not being enforced.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • 1,754 posts
Posted by diningcar on Sunday, July 10, 2022 4:29 PM

BNSF has announced they are hiring 3000 new employees - no details about where and for what.

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 1,189 posts
Posted by mvlandsw on Sunday, July 10, 2022 4:40 PM

Or how they will find them.

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Central Iowa
  • 6,898 posts
Posted by jeffhergert on Sunday, July 10, 2022 7:35 PM

diningcar

BNSF has announced they are hiring 3000 new employees - no details about where and for what.

 

They don't mention, however, the 1000 or more that have already quit.  People that with the seniority they have usually don't leave.

UP is having the same problem, but I haven't heard our numbers of those leaving system wide.  I don't think they're as bad as BNSF's.

Jeff

  • Member since
    May 2005
  • From: S.E. South Dakota
  • 13,569 posts
Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, July 10, 2022 9:33 PM

mvlandsw

Or how they will find them.

 

Bingo! We've been trying to add about 10% more employees to our small company for about 2 years now. We pay well, with good benefits and we work Mon-Fri. I imagine filling railroad jobs would be quite a bit more difficult right now.

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 8,217 posts
Posted by Euclid on Monday, July 11, 2022 10:55 AM

Murphy Siding

 

 
mvlandsw

Or how they will find them.

 

 

 

Bingo! We've been trying to add about 10% more employees to our small company for about 2 years now. We pay well, with good benefits and we work Mon-Fri. I imagine filling railroad jobs would be quite a bit more difficult right now.

 

 

A chronic difficulty in hiring new employees is scientific proof that your pay is too low.  The cost of everything else is being driven up by inflation.  Why should wages be any different?

 
 

 

  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: MP CF161.6 NS's New Castle District in NE Indiana
  • 2,148 posts
Posted by rrnut282 on Monday, July 11, 2022 3:52 PM

And giving only know-nothing do-nothing newbies a hiring bonus grows discontent in your current employees quckly. 

Mike (2-8-2)
  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Central Iowa
  • 6,898 posts
Posted by jeffhergert on Monday, July 11, 2022 11:20 PM

rrnut282

And giving only know-nothing do-nothing newbies a hiring bonus grows discontent in your current employees quckly. 

 

I don't think we're offering hiring bonuses now.  When we did, I never heard any discontent over them from those already here. 

I don't know if anyone actually received the full bonus.  If there are any people left who were offered the bonus they're probably still working to collect it.  They didn't pay the bonus in one lump sum, but increments after working so many days.  Those that were furloughed and didn't come back when recalled had to pay back any part of the bonus so far received. 

Jeff

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:15 AM

But "inflation" is not some magic inevitable invisible hand.  It is driven in part by precisely this, which economists refer to as 'rational expectations'.

Workers see the price of goods or services rise.  They proactively respond to this by asking for a wage rate that maintains their current 'buying power' ... but wages are a factor in goods and service pricing, so those rise (asynchronously, but in the aggregate, as in the 'market basket' contents used for things like COLA, an upward net trend)

Where the rational expectations come in is that workers anticipate increases in prices, and cause the factor price increase dynamically, or tie increases to trends in COLA increases.  This accelerates the cycle.

It's called 'rational' because it seems logical to get out in front of "inflation" effects.

Much of the 'stagflation' of the late Seventies becomes more comprehensible if this model is applied.

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • 4,557 posts
Posted by Convicted One on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:43 AM

jeffhergert
Those that were furloughed and didn't come back when recalled had to pay back any part of the bonus so far received. 

Were  the former employees expected to pay it back all at once, or could they stretch that out over eternity, too?

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: KS
  • 999 posts
Posted by SFbrkmn on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 6:42 PM

Last Friday (7-8) BNSF had 215 trains tied down in yards, sidings or even some mainline sections awaiting a crew to board between Chicago & Los Angeles. Trains have been tied down west of Wellington for days at a time, even on 2nd main tracks. Extra baords at Amarillo & Winslow depleated. Last wk the Amaril bd called for 75 condrs w/no one assigned. Winslow is short close to 100 open slot Back in KS: a grain load for El Paso was tied down on one of the mains in El Dorado for over 24 hrs w/the normal parking sidings in Augusta full. In Wellington, on several occassions, shift yard jobs had to either be annulled for that trip or work w/a reduced crew account  

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,274 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:10 PM

SFbrkmn
Last Friday (7-8) BNSF had 215 trains tied down in yards, sidings or even some mainline sections awaiting a crew to board between Chicago & Los Angeles. Trains have been tied down west of Wellington for days at a time, even on 2nd main tracks. Extra baords at Amarillo & Winslow depleated. Last wk the Amaril bd called for 75 condrs w/no one assigned. Winslow is short close to 100 open slot Back in KS: a grain load for El Paso was tied down on one of the mains in El Dorado for over 24 hrs w/the normal parking sidings in Augusta full. In Wellington, on several occassions, shift yard jobs had to either be annulled for that trip or work w/a reduced crew account  

Treat your work force like ca ca and you get rewarded with more ca ca.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    May 2007
  • 194 posts
Posted by nyc#25 on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:39 AM

I wonder if Warren Buffet is aware of this?

  • Member since
    February 2018
  • From: Flyover Country
  • 5,557 posts
Posted by York1 on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:53 AM

He will look at five, ten, fifteen, and twenty-year statistics and outlooks.

York1 John       

  • Member since
    July 2016
  • 2,631 posts
Posted by Backshop on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:21 AM

nyc#25

I wonder if Warren Buffet is aware of this?

 

I'm sure he is. The question is whether he told his BNSF people to fix it or whether he's going to step in himself. There are two things going on here.  The first is the railroad getting gridlock.  The second is that Buffett has always had a good public persona for doing the right thing and this looks bad.

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • 599 posts
Posted by azrail on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 2:37 PM

Does Uncle Warren really run the company? BH is a publicly traded company.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 25,274 posts
Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 2:46 PM

azrail
Does Uncle Warren really run the company? BH is a publicly traded company.

The A shares are only $417,000 and change, can I sign you up for 1000 shares?

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    July 2016
  • 2,631 posts
Posted by Backshop on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 3:04 PM

Buffett owns 15% of Berkshire Hathaway. He is also CEO and Chairman of the Board.

Top Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders (investopedia.com)

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: Guelph, Ontario
  • 4,818 posts
Posted by Ulrich on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 6:55 PM

Buffett is an almost 92 year old minority shareholder.. likely not much he can do short of recommending changes at the top. 

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • From: Henrico, VA
  • 9,728 posts
Posted by Flintlock76 on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:03 PM

Ulrich

Buffett is an almost 92 year old minority shareholder.. likely not much he can do short of recommending changes at the top. 

 

From what I've heard Buffett is pretty much a "hands-off" chairman of the board as in if the various holdings of Berkshire Hathaway are making money he leaves them alone and doesn't interfere.  However if the BNSF dust-up continues he may be forced to step in, or one of his trouble-shooters if he has any.

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • 2,678 posts
Posted by kgbw49 on Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:56 AM

Buffett has all his mental capacity, not unlike Armand Hammer who ran Occidental Petroleum until he passed at age 92.

Some people remain "sharp as a tack" their whole lives, while others experience cognitive decline at various ages.

Buffett remains sharp as a tack.

  • Member since
    July 2016
  • 2,631 posts
Posted by Backshop on Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:18 AM

Ulrich

Buffett is an almost 92 year old minority shareholder.. likely not much he can do short of recommending changes at the top. 

 

He's the CEO and CotB of BH.  That's a bit more than a "minority shareholder".

Top shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway: Who owns Berkshire Hathaway? | BizzBucket

  • Member since
    September 2017
  • 5,636 posts
Posted by charlie hebdo on Thursday, July 14, 2022 1:03 PM

kgbw49

Buffett has all his mental capacity, not unlike Armand Hammer who ran Occidental Petroleum until he passed at age 92.

Some people remain "sharp as a tack" their whole lives, while others experience cognitive decline at various ages.

Buffett remains sharp as a tack.

 

How do you know that?

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Central Iowa
  • 6,898 posts
Posted by jeffhergert on Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:39 PM

Backshop

 

 
nyc#25

I wonder if Warren Buffet is aware of this?

 

 

 

I'm sure he is. The question is whether he told his BNSF people to fix it or whether he's going to step in himself. There are two things going on here.  The first is the railroad getting gridlock.  The second is that Buffett has always had a good public persona for doing the right thing and this looks bad.

 

 

Warren Buffet said once that BNSF may have to look at some aspects of PSR.  They did a few things early on shortly after that, but I think Matt Rose gave pushback.  Once he retired BNSF seemed to start going farther down the PSR route.  I think that's what Ms. Farmer was brought in for after Rose retired.

While Buffet may not have expected things to get out of hand public image wise, I don't think he disapproves of the changes.

Jeff

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy