ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern President Alan Shaw spent his first two days as CEO visiting railroaders across the system and vowing to restore service to normal levels.
On Sunday, when he added chief executive to his title as president, Shaw headed to DeButts Yard in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he spent time in the main tower, crew rooms, and diesel shop.
“It’s important to me to show my appreciation for our operations team, which works 24/7 to make Norfolk Southern better, and serves our customers,” Shaw says in a video shot at DeButts. “So on my first day as chief executive officer of Norfolk Southern I wanted to be out in the field. At Chattanooga, crews are tight just like many areas on our network, and they’re particularly tight on the weekend. So I came out on Sunday and I thanked the crews who were showing up to serve our customers. And it’s my commitment to put the resources in place to help us be successful.”
On Monday he hopscotched around the system. He started the day at Conneaut Yard in Ohio, then brought breakfast sandwiches to the R-3 rail gang in Ashtabula, Ohio, before heading to the railroad’s busiest hump yard, Elkhart Yard in Indiana. Shaw then visited railroaders in Roanoke, Va.
Shaw said he wants to learn from front-line employees.
“I got a lot of positive feedback on what we’re doing well. And I also got a lot of constructive feedback from employees on what we can do better,” Shaw says. “The immediate near term priority for us is restoring service to the level that our customers deserve and expect and allows them to compete and grow.”
Shaw outlined his priorities for the railroad in a letter to employees on Monday. The railroad is accelerating development of its new Thoroughbred Operating Plan | Service, Productivity, Growth, or TOP | SPG, and is hiring conductors to ease crew shortages.
He emphasized the need for NS to be customer-centric and driven by operations so that it can provide safe and reliable service and convert freight from highway to rail. “Service is the only product we manufacture and the only product we sell,” Shaw wrote.
NS service has suffered since last fall amid higher than usual attrition among its train crews. The railroad has struggled to hire new conductors, particularly in a dozen terminals where the railroad is particularly short of crews.
In March, on-time delivery of merchandise cars was just 34%, well below the railroad’s goal of 65%, while 54% of intermodal shipments were available on time vs. a goal of 84%.
Mr Blackwood because the class ones and their computer oriented generation of people running them place to much emphasis on them as as a whole. It’s a giant video game on the dispatchers screen and that’s what the new generation likes and knows best so they are setting up their railroads to be played just like their favorite game at home. Human response and skill be damned to the almighty algorithm that the whole world is ran on now……… flawed as they are many times over.
It seems the logical policy would be to delegate to the dispatchers authority to override the system if the decision made by the software compromises the safety of the crew or the service to the customer. The dispatchers place a memorandum of record regarding the incident in the dispatching system for review by supervisors after the fact. Then appropriate action is taken. Why do the railroads have the dispatchers – to run the railroad or babysit the computers? People can read about train dispatching before computers. We made it though traffic surges like the Second World War with people in charge. Why not now?
Mssrs Shapp, Blackwood and Wayman nail what might be the top 3 issues with NS. Fix those and they have a chance. Otherwise the operating plan is: SOSDD.
The photo op is a nice style. Let’s see about the substance.
Shaw uses the word “restore”. Well at least he knows that they are not doing well.
Yes Mr. Stamey that does give reason to be optimistic. Guardedly optimistic to be sure. I read, I think maybe at the Newswire, of a train dispatcher that was given time off for overriding the Auto-Router dispatching system that when left alone was delaying a high-priority train, presumably an intermodal. True, he did it without the supervisory authorization he should have gotten. His supervisors admitted he made the best operating decisions and saved that train from unnecessary delay. But rather than admit Auto-Router was making flawed decisions they disciplined him with time off. Maybe Mr. Shaw will visit the Atlanta dispatching center, review Auto-Router vs. letting the dispatchers make the operating decisions and wipe the discipline from that dispatcher’s record. Now that would indicate “restoration”.
I started my career on a class1 ( 800 miles) in the northeast today it would be considered a regional . The CEO was always out in field shaking hands , asking questions , and member of RR baseball team. Todays railroads are really large and Shaw is off to a good start as longs as he continues to do so .
I started my career in the 1970’s on a class 1 railroad 800 miles (today it would be considered a regional) and the CEO was always in the field shaking hands , asking questions, and played on RR baseball team . Todays railroads are just so large but it’s a good start longs he continues to do so .
Again, it’s all about the “Morning Report” conference call. The truth and lack of fear on that call, will set Mr. Shaw and NS up for improvement and team success.
Best wishes to Mr. Shaw. Let’s hope that Mr. Shaw has the where-with-all to right the NS ship as Claude Mongeau had to do at CN after EHH left for CP.
We should watch the operational side of NS over the next few months. Squires didn’t impress me as knowing (or caring to know) the operational side of the railroad. My initial impression of Shaw is that he knows or cares to know what is going on. That can be good or bad for Sanborn. Either she gets from Shaw the support she needed from Squires to run a good railroad, or she gets replaced by Shaw because she was part of the problem.
Hope springs eternal. In my opinion, that is the way he should start. See for himself what is actually occurring on the ground. The time I heard crews using the term NAZI SOUTHERN, I felt there were problems. When the people doing the essential work are not respected, they will resist and/or leave and that is what they have been doing. Now, we wait and see whether he can change the culture that has caused the problems. Middle management can make or break his plans. As has been said many times, S#@T flows downhill. If the Division Superintendents and those above and below think like DRILL SARGENTS and try to force the employees to dance to their tune and not lead them as they should, Alan is in trouble.
Those are pretty low goals for on-time delivery, particularly of merchandise.
“New NS CEO Alan Shaw visits railroaders …”
How exactly could he visit “railroaders”? At their homes? At the supermarket? I thought all the “railroaders” were laid off.
Charles, that is so obviously a snarky comment. What purpose does it serve? Seems pretty clear from both text and photos that Shaw was out on the property. Are those people shown in the photos, working on the weekend, not ‘railroaders”?
Agree Jack. You have to start somewhere. Starting with the rank and file is better than starting with the shareholders. Hopefully Mr Shaw will listen to his employees and act on their suggestions. Time to put railroading back into the hands of railroaders and out of the hands of Wall Street.
Sounds like a good start, getting out to the field level where it all happens. Now he needs to replace the dingbat VP Ops who got them into this mess.