Hunter Harrison at CSX

http://jacksonville.com/business/2017-0 ... executives" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

CSX will be laying off 1,000 management-level employees, the Jacksonville-based railroad confirmed Tuesday. The same day, the company announced that CEO and Chairman Michael J. Ward and President Clarence W. Gooden are retiring, effective May 31.

Sounding like scorched earth.

More like getting ready for a messy "Proxy fight" real soon,believe CSX is not happy about that "Hedge Fund's" ideas
or Hunter Harrison at all!

Here we go again, from last years Horse opera to a possible EHH last stand before he's put out to pasture. I love these ego battles that wake up a sleepy board. LOL Oh Newpylong where art thou............

BTW with EHH's son in law Keith Creel at the helm of CP and Father in law EHH ensconced on the CSX throne perhaps a CP - CSX merger is in the cards down the road ? EHH is gonna make those paranoid rule crazed NS rats and their congealed version of a railroad Hades sweat bullets, and sooner rather then later. There is a God !

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articl ... o.headline" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mr. MMI, your immediate link to the Opinion piece appearing at Bloomberg is one of the most insightful evaluations I have read of the ego-tripping enveloping CSX. Here is a Fair Use passage from the material:

The railroad has a point, but the board decided last week to let shareholders be the judge and vote on the governance and pay requests at a special meeting. A company that bends over backwards to give investors a say? It's an activist investor's dream come true! But this is where things get a little curious. While Mantle Ridge initially said it appreciated the opportunity for investors to make their voices heard, a few days later it criticized the special meeting as a distraction and a needless delay. Efforts to swing the conversation back to a two-party negotiation don't do a whole lot to thwart accusations Mantle Ridge is after effective control of the company with such a large number of designated board seats

This is an old article, but WSJ has a new version which hasn't hit googlenews yet.

CSXT hires Hunter Harrison as next CEO

It's happened:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/csx-agrees- ... 1488829040" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

CSX Corp. has agreed to appoint Hunter Harrison as its next chief executive, people familiar with the matter said, giving the railroad veteran a four-year contract to slash costs and revamp one of the country’s biggest railways.

His appointment ends an unusual contest with an activist investor who quickly parlayed Mr. Harrison’s popularity with investors into sweeping leadership changes at the railway. Mr. Harrison is expected to take the helm as early as this week, the people said.

Harrison is in at CSX after a major activist shakeup, expect fast changes in Jacksonville. I'd be nervous if a CSX employee, Harrison's first move at prior jobs was to reduce number of trains and thus payroll. CPR workers were scared of him and feared for their jobs.

EHH wants CSX shareholders to pickup the $300M that he left on the table at CP - it is supposed to go to a shareholder vote, my shares will not vote in favor to spending $300M for a 72 year old.

Yep EHH is the new boss of CSX. I just loaded up on some more stock. I wish EHH well and hopefully he can work his magic at CSX.

He certainly had quite a welcoming committee with 3 major derailments/collisions yesterday. 3/7/2017

Newburgh, NY
Biloxi, MS (train vs bus)
Blue Island, IL

Number 4 today Q018 derailed in upstate Batavia, NY. Water level route.

CSX = Crash...Spill...Explode

http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/fred-frailey ... t-csx.aspx

Admin note: length of quote edited down to "fair-use" and formatting added. Depending on the length of the article and volume of the paragraphs, we should generally not exceed 3 or 4 paragraphs. - Jeff

Hunter Harrison and his partner Paul Hilal, who runs a hedge fund called Mantle Ridge, didn't just decide one day that it would be nice if Harrison ran CSX Transportation. Rather, they studied the company and all its moving parts the way an army's general staff examines a likely battlefield opponent. To hide their intent from CSX, they hired other investment companies to recruit as paid consultants retired or former executives of the railroad, the better to know what makes the railroad tick, which assets are underperforming, where the keys are to every secret closet and of course where the unspeakable truths are hidden. It's probable that before their intent was publicly revealed in January, they knew the pluses and minuses of everyone from assistant vice president on up--who could stay, who would go. And they had a strategic plan ready to put in place.

It was a bloodless war. CSX didn't really put up a fight, and Hunter (as I can't help but call him) became chief executive officer this week. Expect him to waste no time putting his imprint on the railroad. Act one was to put on hold voluntary and forced buyouts by operating department employees. CSX had put in place a reduction of 1,000 management jobs, but those in transportation positions he wants to personally evaluate. As one insider puts it: "Hunter wants to know who at CSX both understands railroading and knows what a five-star general looks like." Those who pass both tests won't be shown the door.

Hunter's first emissary on CSX property was his trusted assistant Mark Wallace. Clipboard in hand, he was collecting asset values of various properties. Very quickly, some big assets that are either underperforming or judged to be outside the railroad's core will go on the block. I hear from reliable sources these include the wholly owned Indiana Rail Road, the majority-owned Paducah & Louisville, the 40 percent-owned New York, Susquehanna & Western, most of the railroad's trackage in Michigan plus some of its lines in Pennsylvania. Together they could net CSX half a billion dollars in cash that Hunter can apply to restructuring the remaining pieces of the property. Expect a chunk of the coal-gathering network in Kentucky and West Virginia to also be disposed of in some manner.
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