When this whole mess started, I really thought there was a plan, secret or otherwise. The farther we get into it, the more I believe they really don’t know what they are doing and just playing by ear. We are victims of random experimentation. I hope they all go bankrupt and choke on PSR.
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Actually it's scary and sad at the same time.
Senior management has no plans ever since G55 was first announced. Wall Street was promised sub 61 OR by the end of 2019 and sub 60 OR by the end of 2020. Beyond that, who knows. The next two years will be rough. But that is the easy part. If you think getting to sub 60 OR was difficult, wait until UP tries to make it to sub 55 (and maintain that level). All this is predicated on a relatively stable macro economic environment. What happens if the economy goes into a recession, and weekly carloads drop by 25%. On the flip side, what if the economy suddenly heats up and weekly carloads go north of 200k. The current workforce is agile to a degree, beyond that, service will suffer.
And I don't know why all the focus on OR. It's an important metric, but shouldn't be THE metric to focus on. It would be like judging how healthy you are just by looking at your BMI. You can still make your OR goal and not be profitable. If UP makes sub 60 OR but fails to maintain revenue and profit, Wall Street will react very negatively.
When you have tens of thousands of employees and hundreds of communities at stake, not to mention the 150+ years of namesake, you can't just make things up as you go.
Fritz, for all his subtleties, lacks vision and leadership. His senior management team is comprised of yes-men (and yes-women) who kowtows to Lance's every whim. This is in stark contrast to Jim Young. Jim understands that by cultivating an engaged workforce and empowering employees, a company will naturally be successful.
Regarding Brazos, I've heard that Phase II has already been put on hold. Now, if the entire project is axed, then that yard will be a giant monument to failure in leadership.
It's funny I thought the same.
Just look at the Brazos Yard, supposed to help with congestion, hump a large amount of cars, etc.. Now there is talk of sc-apping the 550 million dollar project that was announce a year ago with fanfare. What changed their minds? I think they don't have a plan and just say or do what makes investors happy without looking at long term viability. Short term reward is the plan now....