Inside This Issue
· Post Palestine Problems: NS Struggles in the Wake of Ohio Derailment
· Peace Agreements: CSX Sick Pay Deals Highlight Friendlier Labor Policy
· Winds of Weakness: U.S. Job Growth Slows; Manufacturing Jobs Shrink
· Unrest in the West: Labor Tensions Escalating at Socal’s Ports
· Next for FedEx? To Help It Prevail, It Will Use More Rail
· Take This Job and Shove It: UP Shedding its Chicago Commuter Rail Ops
· I Got What You Need: One Firm’s Opportunities Amid Rail Safety Push
· Wedding Day: This Friday, KCS Will Be Solo No More
Track Talk
“Rail volumes today are being negatively influenced by broader economic trends, including slowdowns in industrial output, high inventory levels at many retailers, lower port activity, and consumer spending that’s not as robust as it was during most of the last three years.”
-AAR Senior Vice President John Gray
The Latest
· Norfolk Southern said it’s still committed to the strategy it presented to investors in December, centered on providing reliable and resilient service. “Over the last several weeks, however, an unrelated series of factors have combined to negatively affect the quality of the service we are providing customers.” Terminal dwell has increased and train speed has decreased, specifically in the railroad’s merchandise and bulk networks. The East Palestine incident is a big reason why, but the company also blames a bridge outage, weather-related challenges, and the implementation of measures to enhance service reliability and safety.” Management insists the inferior performance is just temporary, and that things will improve “over the next few months.” In the meantime, NS continues efforts to restore normality on its line that runs through East Palestine. It’s warning intermodal shippers using alternative routings to expect “delays of at least 24 hours” on shipments moving between key corridors. One is the lane between Chicago and the Northeast. Another is that between Kansas City/St. Louis and the Northeast. A third is between the northeastern port of New York/New Jersey and the Midwest (Cleveland/Detroit/Ohio Valley).
Norfolk Southern Stock Price Trends Since East Palestine Derailment:
· CSX announced paid sick leave deals with the SMART-TD B&O union, as well as the SMART-MD union, both subject to ratification. The agreements would provide five days of paid sick leave annually plus an opportunity to convert two days from personal leave to sick leave. Other CSX unions that have negotiated paid sick leave for their members include the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way (BMWED), which represents track workers; the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC), which represents mechanical employees; the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which represents railroad machinists; and the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers (NCFO), which represents CSX’s utility workers. For CSX’s newish CEO Joe Hinrichs, improved labor relations is a high priority, one that these new deals help advance.
· The labor situation at West Coast ports is getting worse, not better. Negotiations for a new contract have been ongoing since last summer, largely without incident, albeit with some concerns about incidents—enough concerns to convince at least some
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Railroad Weekly to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.