CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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~Z~
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CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/fred-frailey ... ke-cn.aspx
Heard rumblings of this last week when I mentioned this to a group at Tippy Cow. Appears there's some truth behind it.
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Doktor No
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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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Way more than 'some' truth to it.
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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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Welcome to corporate America. Cut,cut,cut and then wonder where your company went. Only time will tell as to how long it takes before all the ramifications of being "Hunterized" are fully realized.
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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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I will tell you this tracking the Standard cars from the west and east coasts of Canada, they know how to run trains. Less than a day in Montreal and Toronto yards. Winnepeg - Symington maybe 2 days. 1/2 hour crew changes and the train keeps moving. Even the origination's out in BFE are "Release, pull, depart town" in less than 24 hours, sometimes even on the weekends.
Even CSX's Toledo to Plymouth to Lansing to GR worked pretty smooth. Chicago must be plugged right now. The next inbound from Clearing dropped off the schedule yesterday from Chicago. That usually doesn't happen.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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CSX stock was down $2.77 today. That's a pretty big dump in one day.
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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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hoborich wrote:CSX stock was down $2.77 today. That's a pretty big dump in one day.
Taking profits.
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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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Possibly. It's had a big run up.
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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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Two bucks change in a major corporation is no big deal nowadays.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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Just reading the latest buzz off the Bull Sheet. CSX is in hot water with STB.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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Has anyone given ponderance to the idea that E. Hunter Harrison is deliberately trying to destroy CSX so that he can then force CSX into a sale to CP or some other Class 1? CSX is in an operating shambles right now, and the STB has even taken notice of same.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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dave989 wrote:Just reading the latest buzz off the Bull Sheet. CSX is in hot water with STB.
I'd say lukewarm. They just want a chat once and awhile to keep it from melting down.
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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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I think folks are giving EHH too much credit or blame (depending on your perspective). Things were getting to be a bit of a mess fro some time before he started. I will repeat again, CN knows how to run trains.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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NYCMan wrote:Has anyone given ponderance to the idea that E. Hunter Harrison is deliberately trying to destroy CSX so that he can then force CSX into a sale to CP or some other Class 1? CSX is in an operating shambles right now, and the STB has even taken notice of same.
I'm sure both US and Canadian regulators would object to a CSX/CP merger under any circumstance if it could be suggested Harrison had tried to run CSX into the ground.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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NYCMan wrote:Has anyone given ponderance to the idea that E. Hunter Harrison is deliberately trying to destroy CSX...
Think about that a bit. Harrison was brought in to maximize share holder value. He needs to drive up the share price and turn some assets into cash to pay dividends. To destroy CSX so CP could buy it would entail driving down the share price which is the opposite of what he was brought in for. Then he'd have to hope that it was CP that bought CSX and not someone else on Wall Street who saw an easy take over.

The superintendents got the boot so Harrision could bring in his own people already tuned to what EH wants. Established businesses tend to be change resistant. The larger they get the worse it is. Instead of fighting with mid-level managers about why it won't work he fires them all and brings in his own people.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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PatAzo wrote:
NYCMan wrote:Has anyone given ponderance to the idea that E. Hunter Harrison is deliberately trying to destroy CSX...
Think about that a bit. Harrison was brought in to maximize share holder value. He needs to drive up the share price and turn some assets into cash to pay dividends. To destroy CSX so CP could buy it would entail driving down the share price which is the opposite of what he was brought in for. Then he'd have to hope that it was CP that bought CSX and not someone else on Wall Street who saw an easy take over.

The superintendents got the boot so Harrision could bring in his own people already tuned to what EH wants. Established businesses tend to be change resistant. The larger they get the worse it is. Instead of fighting with mid-level managers about why it won't work he fires them all and brings in his own people.
Finally a reasonable assessment of what's happening!
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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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Hunter Harrison points the finger of blame: It's the fault of the CSX Employees! (IMHO, a very lame excuse!) Of course, at the rate he has been firing employees, soon he will not have anyone to run any trains. WIth no employee expense, his Operating Ratio ought to look really great.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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On one hand, I see what he did with other railroads. It generated numbers, despite the human costs.

On the other hand, CN was a bloated basket case before being privatized. It wasn't hard to see how the shape up the place, just hard to overcome the inertia of being a government outfit for decades. CP wasn't as bad as CN, but it was perhaps resting on its laurels.

CSX is a different cat. John Snow didn't spare any expense, and slimmed down a lot of lines. It's not like he ran the place CN-style, or even CP-style. Mike Ward's CSX is the legacy of Snow's CSX. EHH doesn't have a fat turkey to cut.

My 2c. I'm not a railroader but I think it's going to be harder to get a CN-size gain when you don't have CN-size bloat to cut.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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Tadman, I'm a little confused by your post. You seem to imply that Harrison was the one responsible for cutting the bloated government-run culture of CN. But CN privatized in 1995 under CEO Paul Tellier. It acquired IC in 1998, picking up Harrison in the deal. CN had started aggressively streamlining several years before privatization.

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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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Time for Humpty Dumpty, eerrrr.... E. Hunter to start puttin things back together.
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Re: CSX laid off 9 division superintendents

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CSX stock was down again today, to $48.14, which is down over $7 from it's recent high of $55.48. It appears to be more than just simple profit taking, as someone else posted a couple weeks ago. Put another way. CSX stock is down over 13% in the last couple weeks. Perhaps, the proverbial honeymoon is over for EHH.

A good free site. http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/csx
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