PAS potential acquisition scenarios

ebtmikado wrote:This NS map is so out of date. In less than 2 minutes viewing, I see at least 3 sections of old data in Connecticut alone! The most obvious is the P&W Willimantic Branch from Plainfield to Willimantic has been reopened for freight traffic, even through interline trains over NECR for at least 5 years.

How accurate is the rest of the map? Your guess.

Lee

Send NS cartographers an email with your findings!

I'm looking forward to an update to this Feb 2013 map that shows the D&H South lines are part of NS and not "CPRS trackage rights!"

From when I've used it for reference along with other maps, in general it's pretty accurate as of the map's effective date; NS and its core system is at least accurate. They still do a lot better at keeping a mostly accurate map of such a wide area than most states do when maintain their state rail maps.

Moreover, I don't think they'll be putting in the resources for the map while they're being haunted by the specter of being eaten by CP or some other reactionary mega-merger.

The classic way for a company like NS to fend off a takeover is to cut expenses/increase profits, making the company too expensive to buy or making the shareholders feel that they will keep cutting, and sell off assets. Another strategy, instead of making the target more valuable, is to make the target less appealing, such as buying a few fixer-uppers like PAS or PAR, that won't be accretive to earnings for a few years, that requires an expensive capital improvement program that will pay off say five years from now.

YamaOfParadise wrote:Moreover, I don't think they'll be putting in the resources for the map while they're being haunted by the specter of being eaten by CP or some other reactionary mega-merger.

Well then perhaps NS should focus on updating the System Overview map that can be accessed by prospective customers and media with a single click from the NS Corp home page:
http://www.nscorp.com/content/nscorp/en ... rview.html

And as Satchel Paige once said "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you!"

http://www.nscorp.com/content/nscorp/en ... edind.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EHH told to pound sand, like we expected.

PAS still in the cross hairs

From the above-linked press release:

Mr. Squires concluded, “We believe that Canadian Pacific’s short-term, cut-to-the-bone strategy could cause Norfolk Southern to lose substantial revenues from our service-sensitive customer base. We also believe the proposed transaction risks harm to vital transportation infrastructure and the communities we serve. Any strategy that hurts our customers and the broader community is highly unlikely to receive regulatory approval and is inconsistent with the delivery of shareholder value over the long-term.”
. . .
Canadian Pacific’s overstated synergy targets imply significant reduction to investment and employment levels, which the board believes would harm service levels and would be unacceptable to the STB.

Operating synergies are limited because the Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern networks serve entirely separate regions and only connect at five points.

Any near-term cost savings that might result from applying Canadian Pacific’s short-term focused operating model on Norfolk Southern would be offset by traffic diversions, service deterioration and loss of service-sensitive customers.

Open access has been widely documented to produce negative revenue synergies from traffic loss and rate compression while also increasing operating costs.

Yup. That's "go pound sand" spoken in a few dozen more words, alright.