A railroad spokesman tells Trains News Wire that the decision to close the Russell locomotive shop was made after a thorough review of operations. The railroad says the volume of work performed at Russell has declined substantially in the last three years. The closure will affect 113 positions, and those impacted were sent home after Friday’s announcement.
In Waycross, the railroad is reducing its locomotive heavy repair operations due to reduced demand for locomotives across the railroad’s network. With fewer locomotives in operation, the railroad says there is less work for the employees at the back shop. A total of 41 jobs will be affected in Waycross.
Furloughed union workers at both facilities will be covered by the terms of their union agreements and will receive at least 60 days of regular pay and benefits.
Regular yard operations and other terminal services will remain in operation at Russell and Waycross. No other shop facilities are affected by Friday’s announcement.
Well now! Even with a reduction in the fleet, when power gets run hard, eventually it will break/give trouble, thus creating backlogs due to trains not meeting schedules and customers not getting their service.
If you don’t need the locos then you don’t need the repairs. Running your railroad more effeciently just makes sense. They are not in business to give you a job. Executives make way too much, I’ll give you that, but, they do not guarrantee you a job, that’s France or Germany.
CSX management are drunk with Harrison’s drink. Stupid moves that will destroy the railroad.
S Roberts, you are so close in your comment. When they thinned the herd of locomotives, which ones did they get rid of, the ones working day in and day out or the ones spending a lot of time in the shop. (the airline industry calls them ‘hanger queens’) Well, that is great until the locomotives you kept start getting long in the tooth, too. Once again, a short term gain for long term pain.
Waycross…. Shut down Finally! Send a busted Locomotive to them with a problem and they send it back to you the same way it was when it was breaking down the customer service process. 1 manager Vs. 2 manager. The battle of the budgets. Some men can’t be reached. This is the problem when people get inside a corporation and are given the power to hire family and ultimately protect their own and protecting themselves and not the customer.
Keep shutting things down. Keep automating everything and nobody will have jobs. Without jobs who will your customers be?
Without customers who will you SHIP to?
The RAILROAD is picking the winners and losers.
If you’re on the winners list, You get Service.
If you’re on the losers list well, you are real slow to get a container shipped to your door.
Yep. Thats how they lower your prices until your company is on its corporate knees.
Then one of their kids or investors come in and get everything you’ve scrapped your knuckles on at a big discount. Follow Property appraisers webs site. See who owns a property when the railroad takes them down the perverbial rabbit hole working with the whole time until the close up shop. FOR SALE. PRICE REFUCED by a thousand paper cuts.
RR UNIONS have been castrated in this process.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure how this works.
Connect the dots. Their names are on the paper work. Most people will give up on once they see how much paper they create to eat up your clock.
Everyone bleeds the railroad. Employees, CEOs, Train Masters and the Unionized Minds of the Conductors and Locomotive Engineers.
CSX Leadership is getting rich and they are putting lip stick and mascare on this pig. Getting Charlotte ready to be sold.
Screwing the American people with piss poor leadreship.
That are squandering lives with the land and right always they were granted by the same American people.
Hunter Harrison was a genuis that was almost perfectly guided. Too bad he didn’t hit the center of the target.
Railroad giant goes down without accomplishing corporate Nirvana.
Peace.
5139
@Alfred Molison. You should rephrase your remark. They are profitable because they are shrinking. They are right sizing the company to the realities of the markets they serve. (though “serve” is dubious in some locales)
I feel bad for all those that were terminated today. I would like to have read more information of the numbers of locomotives in & out of those shops over the past years. Something does not seem right about this.
I ask the same question that I always ask, ‘If this railroad and others are so profitable, then why are they shrinking?’