CSX and Hunter Harrison

dak94dav Feb 16, 2017

  1. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    A huge problem is that railroads made a horrible choice, a few decades back. They decided to cherry pick customers, concentrating upon bulk shippers such as coal, petroleum, ethanol, grains, etc. Only small companies which are very lucrative still get the best attention. That is what we are seeing here with CSX.

    The problem is that era has ended, but people such as EHH don't recognize it. What he practices is similar to a person dieting, to improve their health. But to speed up weight loss, they cut off fingers and toes. It works, but you also permanently cripple yourself.
     
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  2. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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  3. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    I believe EHH's illness has caused his brain to be too long without proper oxygenation and he can no longer think clearly.
     
  4. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    An article in today's (08/01/2017) Railway Age posts a letter penned by Hunter Harrison to customers of CSX. The man's hubris has no limit. In this extract, he blames doubting employees for service troubles, writing "The pace of change at CSX has been extremely rapid, and while most people at the company have embraced the new plan, unfortunately, a few have pushed back and continue to do so. This resistance to change has resulted in some service disruptions."

    In other words, his thinking is flawless and unfavorable outcomes are the fault of others.

    http://www.railwayage.com/index.php...csx-service-issues-blames-some-employees.html
     
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  5. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Rank has its privileges. And the worst of these guys always think Privilege Number One is blamelessness and flawlessness.
     
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  6. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Yes, and Wall Street seems to give this sort of personality a free pass as long as the quarterly numbers look good. Bill Ackman's Mantle Ridge hedge fund helped greatly to install H. Harrison and CSX has granted him an $84 Million compensation package. What's amazing is that CSX's Board provided this without any performance stipulation -- the paycheck is his to take home regardless of his tenure or the road's finances.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2017
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  7. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    They all seem to somehow have acquired the belief they are infallible. An utterly bizarre notion, which must also be a mental health issue- It can be nothing else.
     
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  8. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    This is not only amazing ignorance, but it has a foul odor. Something, which stinks to high heaven, is going on behind closed doors.
     
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  9. acptulsa

    acptulsa TrainBoard Member

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    Hardcoaler called it.

    Long term stockholders seldom go out of their way to secure voting rights. But the speculators do seize those voting rights, and they're the ones most motivated to install these Jim Fisk stock-watering short term thinkers. That's how they get their capital gains.

    It may be good for their purposes, but it isn't good for the road or the nation. Crucified on the alter of the next quarter's numbers.
     
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  10. BnOEngrRick

    BnOEngrRick TrainBoard Member

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    Rumor is that basically the same letter was sent to customers when he was at CN and CP.
     
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  11. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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    I gotta say. It is refreshing to see folks not throw the working men (women) under the bus. I am heartened by some of these posts.
    Seriously it is always blamed on us, just delited you see thru some of that.
     
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  12. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    Mantle Ridge is not Bill Ackman's fund. It is Ackman former disciple Paul Hilal who thinks his method will have greater returns than Ackman. Same lack of concern for the ability of the company to operate as long as the treasury can be raped into Mantle Ridge's pockets.
     
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  13. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    They are in it for one thing and one thing only - vacuum out of the company's coffers every possible nickle and dime in the shortest amount of time and then flush the company down the drain.
     
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  14. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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    Then the merger, or sale. I wonder of the lawyers and lobbyists for this have been born yet.
     
  15. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Just read that CSX Q388 suffered a 32 car derailment with a propane and sulfur fire and evacuation early Wednesday at Hyndman, PA on Sandpatch Grade. Hyndman is near the base of the Grade; train was eastbound, working downgrade. I hope our BnOEngrRick wasn't in the vicinity. No injuries thankfully.

    Another operational headache that will create some serious detours and delays.
     
  16. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    Trains Newswire is reporting that the sulfur fires are continuing to burn, probably until all content is gone. Sulfur fires are very difficult to quench.
     
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  17. BnOEngrRick

    BnOEngrRick TrainBoard Member

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    Nope. Far, far away...
     
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  18. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Detours, if such routes still exist. What has not been severed, sold off to a short line or altogether scrapped.

    I do hope they will not also go the route of deferred maintenance. That will pump up the bottom line artificially, but in a couple of years, cost them far more than any such phony gain. That is a proven fact....
     
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  19. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Funny cartoon from a nearly illiterate cartoonist. Harris? Employlees?

    upload_2017-8-6_17-46-0.png
     
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  20. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

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    Now that there is funny!
     
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