Specifically, Creel points to how Chicago and other gateways remained fluid this winter despite the challenges of operating through the polar vortex and snow that followed.
“I’ve seen a fluid railroad,” Creel told analysts and investors on Tuesday. “Chicago, in spite of some of the challenges during the winter, and whether you relate that all to PSR or not, it stayed more fluid than I would have expected it to, which is encouraging.”
CP interchanges in Chicago with both Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, which are adopting PSR operating models. It connects with Kansas City Southern, the other Class I railroad adopting PSR, in Kansas CIty.
Creel says the CP-UP interchange at Kingsport, Idaho, which handles potash and grain bound for export via Portland, Ore., “has exceeded expectations” since UP recovered from a lengthy line closure after a rock slide caused a derailment in a tunnel in Ritzville, Wash.
“So far so good, and I continue to be their biggest cheerleader and encourage each one of them individually and collectively to stay the course because ultimately they’re going to be able to create additional capacity for customers to enjoy, additional monies to invest back into infrastructure to grow capacity, not shrink capacity,” Creel says.
PSR is not about shrinking, Creel says, adding that people don’t understand the operating philosophy.
It’s the right way to run a railroad, Creel contends, from the standpoints of capacity, safety, productivity, customers, and shareholders.
The lone Class I railroad holdout is BNSF Railway, whose retired executive chairman, Matt Rose, has been critical of the Precision Scheduled Railroading.
