Empire Builder's Troubles continue into the Fall

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30%? The execs really didn't take the problem seriously, did they?

I realize it takes a grossly excessive amount of time to train new engineers & conductors, thanks to a fairly brainless set of FRA rules -- but I'm fairly sure the same is NOT true of track workers. A sustained push could have hired a lot of temporary track workers. That's how things have always been done in construction...

montana mike said:
The number of Ag shipments that are behind schedule is rising steadily and has risen every week in September. They are now considerably above their target and where they promised the STB they would be at this time.
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This is a position you do NOT want to be in as a railroad exec; breaking your promises to the STB is bad, bad, bad. Do they want to be subject to emergency orders, taking the management of the railroad away from them? 'Cause that's what they seem to be asking for.
Although they've dug themselves into a giant hole through incompetence, there are still ways out. BNSF could always stop shipping that damn Bakken oil in order to catch up on everything else. Oil doesn't go rotten, it can just be left in the ground until later. Oil money is bad long-term business anyway since the oil eventually runs out -- grain is recurring. Seems like Carl Ice is too short-term-greedy.
 
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One minor issue--BNSF, according to their own people, does NOT have sufficient grain cars to handle the demand. The Oil is secondary, especially since the majority of those shipments ahead east. Note that the delay issues are now also appearing in MT over the past week or so, where much of the grain needs to be moved from to ports in the west and some to the midwest.
 
I wonder how the timekeeping will be affected starting tomorrow when 7 and 8 flip-flop the detour through the KO sub.
 
sitting in pdx union station waiting to take the afternoon builder to spk. one silver lining is the extra train set which makes for on time departures from sea/pdx and on-time arrival in spk. remember what it was like before the extra train set was added? frequent turns in spk and late departures from sea/pdx
 
montana mike said:
One minor issue--BNSF, according to their own people, does NOT have sufficient grain cars to handle the demand.
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Oh good grief. Can they rent some from GATX?
No sympathy for top management. It seemed pretty likely *last spring* that there was going to be a bumper crop this year. They had time to order new cars from Trinity Industries or FreightCar America or American Railcar Industries or Greenbrier.

They had access to the projections regarding demand levels, including the weather & crop projections. It seems like they just didn't believe them.
 
I may be expressing extra frustration because I have stock in both Berkshire Hathaway and Norfolk Southern. So it's partly my money they're pissing away by mismanaging and alienating their customers.
 
Monday Morning and NO improvement in the Empire Builder timekeeping. In fact it's even worse this AM. #8 is still in ND, about 7 hours behind now and #7 in MN is almost 6 hours behind. Good Brief!!!! And this is with all of that extra padding in the schedule. This route is headed for a meltdown as well.

My trip at the end of the month on the EBs and then LSL could be one of those "epic" treks.......
 
We are on the 8 right now sitting on a wayside before Fargo because the crew is out of hours. With the additional 3 hours of padding added from Seattle we will most likely not get into St Paul until 3 pm meaning we will be approximately 11 hours late (if we're lucky!). We have made numerous stops to let freight trains pass with frack sand, oil and wheat.
 
Again: were all the freight trains passing in the opposite direction?

You should never, EVER be passed by a freight going in the same direction (unless, perhaps, you're stopped at a station); that's a violation of federal law. If it occurs it should be reported to the STB.
 
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Looking at BNSF's letter to the STB of 10-3-14 their past due commitment to the STB was no greater than 2000 by September, and they have now shot past 4000 and this number is climbing at an increasing rate. BNSF also shows that they did not refuse ANY orders last week at all, and of course their delayed order status went thru the roof. The number of rail cars in the system continues at a pace that is above 200,000, which, according to my local BNSF contacts, is not sustainable given the current infrastructure (locomotives, tracks and people). How do you spell "MELTDOWN"?????
 
No guarantees-ever-but the local BNSF folks here in western MT say while they will "reevaluate" things in January, it is likely the routes will stay the same until all construction is finished on the Hi-Line. BUT, that is just the thinking now, who knows what the situation will be by then!
 
montana mike said:
No guarantees-ever-but the local BNSF folks here in western MT say while they will "reevaluate" things in January, it is likely the routes will stay the same until all construction is finished on the Hi-Line. BUT, that is just the thinking now, who knows what the situation will be by then!
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Thanks! I'll play it by ear I guess.....
 
Total management incompetence.

I guess Buffett didn't realize he'd bought a railroad managed by fools. BNSF needs to:

(1) in the short term, match its level of accepted new orders with its capacity

(2) in the long term, match its capacity with the requested level of new orders

BNSF management appears to be doing neither. With new orders still increasing, in the immediate term they should be embargoed (customers told that they won't get pickup for weeks), and meanwhile BNSF should be planning *additional* track expansion ASAP, and hiring the workers to do it. But apparently instead they're accepting new orders which they can't deliver right now (creating "never again" freight customers who will switch to trucks, or perhaps CP) -- and not expanding to match demand, either. Yeesh.
 
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Agree. And today I was told that their construction season will likely wind up a bit early. Not due to completion of certain projects, but because of a lack of manpower to complete them. Off the record it was shared that BNSF is woefully behind in a number of metrics to "fix" the problems. Doesn't give me a warm fuzzy for my train ride in a couple of weeks. I enjoy taking the train, but adding 8+ hours to a scheduled 35 hour trip to arrive in CHI in the wee hours of the AM is not my idea of a great way to start a business trip.

Meanwhile today's #7 now in MT is 9 hours late and #8 in ND is 7 hours late--good grief!!! Not only no improvement over last summer, but actually getting worse.

:-(
 
neroden said:
Again: were all the freight trains passing in the opposite direction?

You should never, EVER be passed by a freight going in the same direction (unless, perhaps, you're stopped at a station); that's a violation of federal law. If it occurs it should be reported to the STB.
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If the crew is out of hours and they are waiting for a new crew, then freights certainly could pass in either direction without violating Amtrak's dispatch preference. That may or may not happen at a station.
 
If there is to be any improvement in OT performance, a double or perhaps triple track is needed on the EB route. Oil traffic is increasing weekly and as long as there is no pipeline to the Bakkens will keep increasing .

The problem all comes down to Wall Street that in its infinite quest for higher and higher profits forces US industry to cut its labor force, cut its capital expenditures to the bone so that they can give the greedy investors more, more & more return with less, less & less. As for new track; the line across NJ from Camden to Atlantic City (from border to border, end to end) of 55.5 miles was built in 1889 and completed in only 30 days. With the modern machinery, small track crews and the never ending government red tape of today we refuse to duplicate the efficiency of over 100 years ago that was done with nearly 100% manual labor. How low we have sunk! .
 
Well, Mr. Buffett and his minions are in charge of BNSF and ever since they took over BNSF has gone down hill. As the local BNSF employees have told me on several occasions, the railroad is now run as a "profit center" and not a railroad. They must compete with the other components of Mr. Buffett's empire for capital and attention and indeed long range planning has been non-existent, lurching from one crisis to the next. Sad to see this once great railroad sink so low.
 
Well, the EB #8(10/6) had a good run, it arrived at Chicago at 4:30 PM CT, only 35 minutes late. Looking at the status maps archive database, that is the earliest arrival in CHI since September 18.
 
Let the good times roll & continue! We are taking our grandkids(3&5) on their 1st train trip. Starting short with an overnight from Minneapolis/St.Paul to Lacrosse, Wi. and back. Leaving Saturday 10/18 and returning Sunday 10/19. Hopefully the delay won't be too late that we get a bus to Lacrosse :-( They are excited to hear "ALL ABOARD"
 
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